The Way Home
by Warringer
Summary: A Back Home Dark/Mirror AU. The Doranians have invaded Earth and turned all humans into slaves. A hero must return to free Earth and pacify the galaxy. STEAMLINED REWRITE OF GOING HOME!
1. Chapter 1

The Way Home – Going Home Rework

by Warringer

Prologue

--

Harry James Potter grunted as the shock stick hit his side. Having been forced into the role of a slave for now three years forced him to be able to simply shut out the pain he felt from the impact and the electric shock of the stick.

He glared at the Doranian slaver from underneath his mob of unkempt and dirty hair for a moment, before grabbing his cousin Dudley and pulling him along into the waiting shuttle.

The invasion had been swift and brutal. First the Doranian force of eleven cruisers had battered any major population center and military installation with asteroids before they had been reinforced by even more cruisers and landing ships.

As far as Harry knew London had been hit five times, making him doubt that much of the wizarding community there had survived there.

For a moment he thought Dudley. The Invasion had made the Dursleys forget about their hatred against wizards for a time and Harry had watched the telly with them, wanting to know what the government or anyone else would do against it.

And Vernon had actually ordered Harry to get his wand in case the aliens would come to Privet Drive, so that he would defend them all. It had been surreal for Harry.

Than the invasion force landed and one of the landing ships touched down in Little Whinging. The Doranian forces had swept through the town like locusts and those they didn't kill on sight, they herded together.

Harry had in fact tried to use a 'Reducto' on them, but a stray plasma beam had hit his wand hand and not only burned the wand to cinder, but also burning his hand rendering it pretty much useless.

He could still remember how the Doranians had singled out several of the older people from the crowd they had herded together next to a landing ship. They had than proceeded to dismember and kill them in rather cruel fashions. Two of them had been Vernon and Petunia.

Even if Harry hadn't liked his aunt and uncle, this was not a death he would have wished them. Not even Tom would have deserved being cut open like a pig before being forced to watch how a giant cat ripped the still beating heart from the body, like Vernon.

It had been a example to the other people. Resisting was a bad idea any everyone who resisted to die like one of these people. Dudley hadn't been in any shape to resist anyway. Being forced to watch his parents being killed like that would have made everyone go into shock. The shock still effected him to this day, as he had lost his voice at that day.

After being herded into the landing ship more than a thousand people of all ages were ferried off the planet and to the next Doranian slave procession center.

Harry shook his head clear and breathed in deep as the bulkhead to the slave compartment was smalled shut, the electric noise of the locks being shut and the vacuum seals closing.

The smell of the slave compartment was bad, but after living three years in places like this had hardened Harry. He didn't knew if he should thank his aunt and uncle next time he saw them for making him able to keep himself sane and mentally active, where Dudley had pretty much been broken.

For a moment he wondered where his cousin was now. They had been separated two years back, when they had been put to use in an asteroid mine.

He glanced around in the slave compartment. It wasn't very large, but still larger than Privet Drive 4. He noted a group of Nomads in one corner, one of them seemed to dress the wound of a second one, while the others tried to groom their fur.

In another corner was a whole group of beings Harry had gotten to know as being one of the most sought after slaves of the Doranians, Shin'bi. Their clothes were mostly intact and the way they debated with each other told Harry that they were most likely just captured.

"You're a Tommy, aren't you?" he heard a human voice with a very noticeable German accent speaking up behind him.

Harry was not all that surprised by the voice, now and than there were other slaves who wanted to be 'friends' and slowly turned around to see a taller man standing there. The man appeared to be human. Sure there were several races that looked human, but Harry doubted that they either spoke English, had a German accent or used the word 'Tommy'.

"I guess so," Harry replied and shook his head, deciding that he should sit down as well.

The man cursed in several rather colorful words Harry guessed to be German.

"The Vree got you too?"

Harry snorted as he leaned against a bulkhead and slid down to the ground. Sure the Vree were known to make good money with slaves, but he doubted they would have been able to keep a wizard down after teleporting him on their ship.

"No," he said and shook his head, before placing it against the bulkhead." Doranians."

The man narrowed his eyes.

"Doranians? How?"

Harry looked at the man again. As he had been abducted by the Vree before the Invasion, he couldn't know.

"They invaded three years ago," he said with a sigh." Nuked just about everyone on Earth. Russians and Americans tried to nuke them in return, but it didn't work."

The man blinked and sat down next to Harry.

"Nuked?" he asked and Harry noted the wonder in his voice." What is 'nuked'?"

Harry looked at the man. He appeared to be in his late thirties and yet he didn't know what a nuke was?

"Nuclear Weapons ring a bell?" he wondered, observing the man and his blank face.

"No sorry," the man said after a while, shaking his head.

"Atomic Weapons?" he tried again.

The man raised an eyebrow.

"Like the ones from these American Pulp novels or Buck Rodgers?"

Now it was Harrys turn to raise an eyebrow.

"When have you been abducted by the Vree," he finally asked after a few moments of silence.

"March 23rd 1932."

Harry stared at the man for a moment and than shook his head, before looking at his wristwatch, the only thing he still owned. The mechanical watch was a gift from Arthur Weasly and was charmed to always show the correct time as well as the correct date.

"We have the 2nd July 1998," he said slowly and looked at the mans face.

Again he head a sting of colorful curses, this time even going as far as meshing in several of alien origin like Centauri, Doranian or Jurian.

After about five minutes, the man calmed down and massaged his temples. Than he looked at Harry.

"Joachim von Bismark," he introduced himself and held up his hand, inviting Harry to shake it.

Harry chuckled a little and grabbed the hand shaking it.

"Harry James Potter."


	2. Chapter 2

The Way Home – Going Home Rework

by Warringer

Chapter 1

--

Personal Log, Jeffrey Sinclair, 10th August 1260 (estimated)

Its been four weeks since I have gone into the past with Babylon 4 and there are still no signs of the Minbari or even Vorlons.

The Station has appeared in a high orbit around a massive gas giant and it seems that it is stable as far as I can tell. I have been forced to activate the experimental Artificial Intelligence that should have taken over control over the station. I can't control a station this large on my own.

I'm getting a little impatient, but its only a matter of time until the Vorlons and the Minbari arrive.

I hope...

--

Personal Log, Jeffrey Sinclair, 14th August 1260 (estimated)

I did have a visitor today...

I have absolutely no idea how he got on the station without Jack, that is the name of the AI, informing me.

The being introduced himself as Lorien. And he has talked with me.

Now I know why there are no Vorlons and Minbari coming, at least according to what he said. I don't have any idea what exactly he said, as he talked about quantum physics, but the gist of it is that Babylon 4 and I are 'quantum copies' that have been transferred into a parallel universe during the transfer into the past.

My 'original' has traveled safely into the past and I'm stuck here, in another universe with no idea what to do.

I can't even leave this system as there seems to be no jumpgate anywhere near. And even if there was, I doubt that I would be able to get far with just a shuttle.

--

Personal Log, Jeffrey Sinclair, 16th August 1260 (estimated)

I made a decision...

I have ordered Jack to put the entire station on standby, powering down all systems and pump the atmosphere into the tanks to depressurize the station. Than he will start a radio and tachyon beacon. Maybe it will be heard by someone.

I am going to enter an emergency cryo chamber in one of the Med Bays.

I hope someone finds us sometime...

--

There was a dry chuckle coming from another corner.

Harry and von Bismark turned their head to look at another human, or near human at the very least, who was looking directly at them. By the looks of it the human was female, and in similarly ragged clothing. Once those clothes might have been a uniform, but now it wasn't much more than what most Doranian slaves were wearing, through it did look like the woman had taken sowhat care of them.

The woman might have looked attractive, but that was at least forty years in the past, as she looked like she was in her sixties.

"1998, eh?" she asked as she slowly walked over to them.

Harry looked at her as she slowly sunk back down to the ground to sit by them. He winced slightly as he heard some of her bones creak. The woman winced as well and grunted as she settled herself on the ground, muttering something about micro-gravity and youth.

"I doubt my watch is going wrong," he said and sighed.

The woman grunted.

"Elenor McPherson, formerly Earth Force," she introduced herself." And I think I'm in the wrong time, just like Herr von Bismark here."

Next to Harry, von Bismark raised an eyebrow.

"Wrong time?"

She shrugged.

"Most likely even the wrong universe..."

Harry shook his head. He was willing to believe just about everything right now. He was a wizard, able to do magic, had survived an alien invasion, been forced into slavery by said aliens and now he was meeting a man from before World War II and a woman that was from another universe.

Next he knew they would be rescued by Luke Skywalker and brought to a rebel space station or something...

"And that would be?"

She sighed.

"I'm from the year 2210. I used to be a crew member of the _EAS Kubayashi Maru_. I have no idea what exactly happened, but the ship was attacked and raided by Doranian slavers. So... Here I am..."

Harry snorted. It was hard to forget that one Star Trek movie, especially since it was the first science fiction movie he had ever watched.

Von Bismark on the other hand looked at her with interest.

"A space ship?" he wondered out loud." Do you know how to fly one?"

"Hah," Elenor made and shook her head a little." I might know how to pilot an Earth Force shuttle, but I doubt that this ship got the controls of an Earth Force shuttle. Besides I have piloted my last shuttle thirty five years ago."

Von Bismark leaned back at the bulkhead and closed his eyes for a moment.

Harry looked at him and than at Elenor, who sighed.

"How old are you?" she wondered as she looked at Harry.

"Eighteen..." he answered truthfully and heard Elenor breathe in sharply before getting a rather loud 'fuck' from her.

"Eighteen?" she asked and looked at him.

Harry nodded.

"The cats got kids younger than me during the invasion."

Elenor grit her teeth and Harry's glance wandered away from her for a moment. His eyes fell on the group of Shin'bi. They had stopped arguing with each other and were looking towards them, through he guessed that they were mostly looking at von Bismark.

After a moment one of the Shin'bi slowly walked towards them and looked at von Bismark. After a moment she, at least Harry assumed that the Shin'bi was female, bowed at them.

"We are willing to help you with the break," she said after a moment.

Von Bismark opened his eyes and smirked. He looked back at Elenor.

"Maybe you can learn how to fly this ship."

--

"Bloody hell."

Hermione Garnger ducked her head behind a low crate as red and yellow plasma bolts raced over her head. Some of them hit the crate, sending bits and pieces of burned and burning plastic through the air.

No, this was not one of her better plans. Who could have known that the invaders had reinforced the security after the last raid?

"Fire in the HOLE!" someone screamed from the size and Hermione looked up and over the crate for a moment.

Another plasma bolt nearly scalped her as it flew over her head yet again. Cursing again she ducked behind the crate again, scowling herself for making such a rookie mistake.

Over the sound of the plasma bolts, they sounded eerily like blaster shots from Star Wars to her ears, she could hear the swooshing sound of a missile launched from a Carl Gustav streaking down range, followed by the large explosion that silenced the plasma fire for a few moments.

There was a short silence and she jumped up from behind her cover, pointing her wand downrange.

"Reducto!" she called out sending the curse downrange, followed by the three other wizards in the raid squad, who send their own curses downrange.

Another Carl Gustav missile streaked downrange, detonating as it hit a Doranian in heavy powered armor. Another sound mixed into the explosion, that of tracks on asphalt.

"About damned time," Hermione muttered under her breath as a Warrior ISV rounded the corner and its small turret turned into the direction of the Doranian warriors.

"Reducto!" she called out again, knocking over a Doranian medium powered armor.

She ducked behind the crate again as the 30 mm autocannon of the Warrior opened fire. She breathed in deep and reached for the salvaged and modified Doranian plasma rifle, easy the size of a L2 machine gun, but charmed with featherweight for easier handling.. For a moment she closed her eyes as she put her wand into its quickdraw holster and jumped up again, leveling the rifle downrange and opening fire together with the others of the raid squad.

Several more Carl Gustav missiles streaked past them and two minutes later nothing alien was standing anymore downrange.

Silence, save for the sound of a motor, descended onto the field of battle and Hermione turned towards the Warrior. The hatch opened up and a head popped out of it.

"Did they get them?" she asked out loud.

"A complete load! And a new goodie for Professor Hawking!"

Hermione smiled grimly and nodded.

"Everyone get in!"

The rear hatch of the Warrior opened up and the look into the interior of the tracked ISV showed that the Plasma Rifles weren't the only things that had been modified by the Joint Resistance made up from what had remained from the Wizarding World, the British Army, the British government and whatever civilians were lucky to escape the Invasion.

Larger from the inside than from the outside the Warrior was able to carry two dozen people and freight, making it perfect for fast raids of Doranian installations like this one.

Instead of entering the rear hatch of the Warrior, Herminone climbed on top of the tracked vehicle and placed her hand on the turret hatch. Hearing the rear hatch closing, she smirked slightly. It had been a stroke of genius to charm an entire tank as a portkey.

"Cassiopeia," she called out and disappeared with the Warrior.

Several hundred kilometers north of the Doranian Armory in Essex, the Warrior appeared in the center of the large encampment that surrounded Hogwarts Castle and stretched between the shores of the lake, Hogsmade and the Forbidden Forrest.

The entire area had been placed under a Fidelius Charm in the aftermath of the Invasion and as Dumbledore had followed 'Operation Atlantis', something he had planned during the Battle for Britain in the Second World War, together with Winston Churchill and the members of the muggle and magical governments of that time.

'Operation Atlantis' had been a fall back plan should Germany manage to invade the British Isles and Grindelwald succeed in helping Hitler. It would have enabled the British Governments to remain on the islands and help along the Resistance against the occupation.

Now it was in effect as the result of an alien invasion.

"Did you get them?" the familiar voice of Sirius Black asked as he approached the Warrior.

Hermione smiled lightly.

"I haven't looked yet, but," she patted the hatch of the ISV," Carpenter says that we got a full load of Plasma Rifles and something for the Professor."

Sirius chuckled.

"Last time you managed to get a fusion rector. What will it be this time?"

Hermione shrugged.

--

The powerful V-12 engine roared as air pressed harder against the four blade propeller of the diving plane.

Bolts of yellow orange plasma shot over the cockpit as the plane dived from three thousand feet. The Doranian assault shuttle pulled down after the slower, but much more agile air craft, the pilot trying to keep it in his sights.

Inside the smaller, slower, but vastly more agile British aircraft, Charlie Weasley's hands were craped around the steering horn, adrenalin pumping through his body.

'Lets see if he falls for it,' he thought as he continued to dive down towards the ground north of Essex.

"I seriously hope he does..."

Sweat poured out of every pore as he stared at the closing ground. He had done something like this several times before. Once he had managed to find out the limits of maneuverability of his machine, he had figured out how to apply more than one Quidditch move into aerial combat, something that had saved his hide more than once.

'NOW!'

Ha pulled hard at the steering horn and pressed his whole body wight into the seat. A short glance at the speedometer told him that he had now reached about 600 miles per hour, which explained the strength he needed to pull back the horn.

The G-forces of pulling the plane back into level flight pressed him even further into his seat and his vision began to become a little gray on the edges. Breathing in deep he clenched his chest and stomach muscles trying to keep on as long as possible.

His mother would kill him if he slammed into the ground. And the twins would kill themselves to follow him into the afterlife and prank him for all eternity for wrecking their best work.

Finally the plane had gone back into level flight, not even four meters above the ground. He breathed in again, swallowing. He had never cut it this far before. He could nearly count the grass below as he streaked over the ground more than five times faster than the fastest broom.

Hell, this was more fun than riding a dragon.

There was a massive flash if yellow-orange light behind him, reflecting in small mirror outside of the cockpit bubble.

Charlie allowed himself a slight grin, mentally striking out one assault shuttle. That left two more.

And those two made themselves known as plasma bolts impacted left and right into the ground.

Again he pulled the horn closer to his body and the plane back up into the air. He was going nearly vertical up as he yanked it to the left and pressed his feet into the rudder pedals. A short glance into the mirror and the bulky gray blue object passing his peripheral view let him know that the shuttle was not longer behind him.

His head shot around, his glance following the shuttle as it slowly turned around to follow him again. Acting on pure instinct, learned from numerous aerial ballets of death like these, he pulled his plane around again, listening to the slight groans of the airframe and the wings.

'Showtime!'

He pulled the plane around, following the shuttle that had just passed him. Sure the shuttle was faster, but the way it turned at the moment, he had the chance of a strafing run. As he pulled closer towards the shuttle, he pressed his thumb on the trigger, sending a stream of '0.303 inch Weasley special' bullets towards the shuttle.

Each of the bullets was engraves with a pair of runes, Bill's speciality. One to enlarge the bullet by five times after leaving the gun, while the other detonated like a reducto on impact.

Charlie grit his teeth as he watched how the tail of the shuttle was reduced to fragments of metal as dozens of bullets slammed into it. He pulled the plane around just in time, as the reactor of the shuttle detonated.

That left...

There was another yellow and orange flash of a detonating reactor and Charlie smirked a little. It looked like his partner in crime had just taken care of the other shuttle.

"Took your time, Tooth," he said over radio, chuckling a little, and gently directed his plane towards Hogwarts.

A grumble was the answer as a Gloster Meteor pulled up to his plane, close enough that he could see the pilot giving him The Finger.

"Shut up, Ridgeback."

Charlie grinned and gave the other pilot a thumbs up.

"You're just jealous that my brothers gave me the Spitfire and not you."

Again he looked at The Finger and heard a grumble over the radio.

"Lets wrap this up," Charlie said after a moment." Engage the cloak and lets head back home. The Essex raid should be over by now..."


	3. Chapter 3

The Way Home – Going Home Rework

by Warringer

Chapter 2

--

The Great Hall of Hogwarts was buzzing with activity. Even through Earth had been invaded and taken over by sentient cats from outer space, Hogwarts tried to follow through with the maxim of 'Business as usual'. And as such classes were still held, through by now only those who had managed to get out of dodge were part of those teaching or being taught.

But by now the children that were taught weren't only magical. Many of the families of 'muggle born' wizards and witches had been able to flee to Hogwarts and Hogsmade, just as well as families of the military and the governments.

Likewise the staff of Hogwarts had been expanded with a good number of the faculties of Oxford, Cambridge, Lakehurst and other places. Not all of them were teaching and using the ever changing and large rooms of the massive castle for their studies of alien technology and any way that could be used to excel the alien invaders from the planet.

Hermione looked over the expanded Great Hall as she sat down at one of the tables with her friends and comrades in arms. She nodded with a smile towards where Professor Hawking was directing his wheelchair through the maze of tables. It had been fortunate that he had been in Edinburgh during the invasion and 'Operation Atlantis' had included men like him to be evacuated to Hogwarts. Likewise it was good to know that he could at least speak sowhat normal again and could take part in conversations without having to relay on his laptop.

Next to her Ron Weasley was already digging into his meal and shook his head. It seemed that his appetite had grown since the invasion, but to herself she admitted that it was most likely due to the lack of food during the first winter after the invasion, where no one had much to eat, if at all. Even today food was rationed to preserve it for bad times. Or rather worse times.

"I heard that Doktor Andreyasn and Ron's father are close to finishing that paraport thing of theirs," Jack Crunser, the driver of her teams Warrior said after a moment.

"Teraport device," Hermione corrected more automatically than intentionally as she looked down at the nice Wiener Schnitzel in front of her, complete with chips. Gone where the days when the dinner was a feast in all but name. At least they were able to get what they wanted within reason, through it had the look and feel of cantina food.

Crunser rolled his eyes as he bit down on his hamburger and chewed.

"Whatever," he said between bites." Maybe you'd get under the armor during 'porting once we get it installed."

Hermione rolled her eyes. She was the best and fastest witch in their team when it came to enchanting portkeys. She could get one done in less then ten seconds, but she needed to stay outside of the Warrior to enchant it.

"I heard they need to tie a wizard into an electrical chair for it to work," Ron said and blinked, looking at Hermione." Whats an electrical chair?"

Hermione pushed a slice of her Schnitzel into her mouth and chewed slowly so that she didn't need to answer Ron.

"A chair that gives you a nicely curled haircut after it is turned on," Crunser noted with a grin.

"Oh?" Ron made and looked at Hermione." So thats how muggles do that with their hair."

Hermione snorted and the Schitzel nearly went down the wrong pipe. Coughing she kicked Crunsers shin and gave him a glare.

"Ow," the twenty two year old driver made and reached down to rub the offended shin." Hey, it's true, isn't it? Only side effect would be that you are very dead after using it."

Ron dropped his food back on the dish and stared at Crunser, which got the driver another glare from Hermione, while the others of the team snickered.

"Ron, don't take everything for face value."

Hermione had finally swallowed correctly and wanted to respond to the 'Teraport device', a sort of 'technomgaical' portkey, as a strangely loud female voice interrupted the dinner.

The suddenness of the voice and its volume, draw the glances of everyone present towards the staff table, where they could see Professor Sibyll Trelawney had risen up from her seat. Those sitting closer to the staff table could see that her eyes were glazed over, while she held a fork with a chicken drumstick on it into the air, waiving it around.

"The lost hero will return," she proclaimed in a singsong voice," Descending from the heavens in a green ark, advised by the Minbari not of the Minbari, the hiding dragon, the recent ancient and the wolven man of faith, he will free the lands from oppression. Handling the heretics of man, he will be proclaimed as ruler of man, denying it."

Lost Hero? Hermione mouthed as she stared at Ron who stared at her.

"Uniting men, he will stride among the stars, bringing peace and freedom through the sword. Long live the hero."

Ron and Hermione continued to look at each other while most stared at Sibyll, who now blinked and took down the hand with her fork and blushed a little.

"oops..."

"Harry," Ron and Hermione said at the same time before their look returned towards Sibyll.

--

The airlock to the slave compartment depressurized and Harry breathed in deep. It was now or never.

He glanced over to the others that were part of this try to break out. Six Shin'bi. From what he had seen, when he had seen them, they were incredible hand to hand fighters. No wonder most Doranians that owned one broke them completely to use as bodyguards, even going as far as implanting chips that removed any will from their slaves. A technological Imperio...

The next glance went towards von Bismark, the grandchild of the famous Otto von Bismark. Harry didn't know what to think of the man. He had never seen him fight and the man was nobility. For a moment the fact that he belonged to a Preussian family entered his mind, as well as that Preussia used to be a militaristic nation. He would have to wait and see what von Bismark would do.

And than there was McPherson. Other than von Bismark, Harry knew her to be military. Well at least she used to be military before the Doranians took over her ship and made her a slave. And it was more than thirty years ago.

The airlock hissed and slowly opened, revealing a Doranian with a shock stick behind it. Time for action.

With a wordless scream he saw how von Bismark launched himself at the Doranian as the airlock opened fully to show two other cats. One of the Shin'bi was jumping at the second cat, leaving the third to the rest of the group. But only two people could fit through the airlock.

Harry reacted on an old instinct, nearly forgotten in the three years of slavery, as he saw the third Doranian reaching for the remote that would turn on their shock collars. His right hand shot up as if he was holding a wand. The heavily scarred fist pointed at the head of the Doranian as he yelled a curse he thought he would never again use.

"Reducto!"

That something happened at all was a great surprise to Harry. He had never been very good at wandless magic and the ball of energy heading towards the head of the Doranian and turning it into a spray of blood, bones and gray matter was not something he had expected.

By now von Bismark had broken his Doranians hand and grabbed his shock stick to ram it between his legs, while the Shin'bi had turned her Doranians face into a warzone.

Harry still stood there, staring at the headless corpse of the Doranian, his arm still stretched out, pointing at where the Doranians head was still raining some blue-green blood on the corridor.

"Mahoutsukai," one of the other Shin'bi said out loud as he in turn looked at Harry.

"What the hell was that?" came from McPherson.

Harry swallowed and slowly lowered his arm. Von Bismarks head had turned towards him and than shook his head.

"We can worry about that later. First we need to take care of the other slavers."

Harry looked back at the Shin'bi who had spoken. He had learned enough Intercosmo to understand the dragonoid.

"He can't be a mahoutsukai," another of the Shin'bi said, low but audible to Harry." He's not Shin'bi."

The first one looked at the other and shook his head.

"He is without a doubt."

"Uhm, hello?" McPherson said after a while as she walked out of the slave compartment after Von Bismark and the Shin'bi female." We need to get going..."

"Right," Harry rapidly added," First taking over the ship, than worrying."

It appeared that there were not many who had gotten the short debate between the two Shin'bi and Harry was a little concerned about the lack of reaction to his magic from the humanoid dragons. Von Bismark had been bus with the Doranian to notice very much, while McPherson had reacted like any muggle should react around magic.

There was another double of screams coming from further down a corridor followed by sounds of flesh and metal pounding into flesh. He could even hear one or two breaking bones.

"We found the bridge!" von Bismark called out towards them as the other Shin'bi moved towards the other end of the corridor.

The shuttle wasn't very large and from what Harry had seen on others he didn't think that they had to deal with more than five Doranians, all who have been taken care of. He stepped over the broken bodies of the last two cats, one of them having a broken neck, while the other twitched slightly, while his head was still smoking slightly from signed fur and what was left of his skin.

Harry absentmindedly noted that the burnt skin smelled a little like bacon.

"Your turn, Elenor," von Bismark said after the woman had entered the bridge.

She nodded and looked at the controls of the shuttle. Von Bismark on the other hand was looking straight at Harry, just as his Shin'bi companion, Haruka did.

"Okay, how did you turn that head into fine mist?"

"Mahou," the voice of the Shin'bi from earlier said from behind him.

Von Bismark's look went towards him for a moment and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Magic?"

So that was it what that word meant, Harry noted for a moment. He might as well tell them about being a wizard. If he was still able to do magic, he needed to retrain himself. One never knew if it could come in handy anytime soon. Besides the Ministry could hardly send him to Azkaban now, could it?

"You can't expect me to..."

Harry interrupted von Bismark.

"He is right," he said after drawing in a deep breath." I'm a wizard."

Von Bismarks eyes turned back to Harry, while his facial expression turned to confusion.

"What?"

"I can do magic. Through not the 'pulling a rabbit out of a hat' kind. More like the 'turn someone into a frog' kind."

"Why didn't you use it earlier."

Harry's face turned slightly red and his hand moved to scratch the back of his head.

"I didn't believe I could use it after my wand got destroyed by..."

"Uh oh..."

This pair of words brought Harry's explanation to a grinding halt as every eyes focussed on McPherson. The old pilot had her eyes glued on the large cockpit window and the massive light gray shape that hung in front of it.

"The _Maru_," she noted and swallowed." But I think the Holly Roger is kind of new..."

"Bloody Hell..."

Harry's words expressed the thoughts of just about everyone else in the tiny bridge of the shuttle.

--

Once upon a time, Aleksandr Mellings used to be normal kid, growing up in Leeds, United Kingdom, Earth. As he had his eleventh birthday, he found out that he was a wizard. And that he had been selected to go to one of the greatest Wizarding schools of Europe, Hogwarts.

Being eleven years old, and growing up in a place that rapidly went down when it came to employment during the seventies, his parents had been very fast to say yes to him going to that school, especially after he had turned his push doggy into a real doggy.

Time at Hogwarts had been great. One of the greatest times he could imagine. And the pranks he witnessed from the Marauders, who where his upperclassmen by three years, made it even greater. After his OWLs, life threw a cricket bat between his legs and he ended up in the Forbidden Forrest at the wrong time.

Full moon in combination with a Death Eater attack at another place had lead to Aleksandr being bitten by a were wolf. The were wolf let Aleksandr live and the Aurors being busy to deal with the Death Eaters had let him get away, changing Alexanders life again.

Now having been cursed to be a were wolf, he was forced to leave the school and the wizarding world was not known for allowing were wolfs to work for them. And with being a known were wolf, he had to reign himself in. So he moved back to his parents in Leeds.

After several years of getting used to be a were wolf and hiding it out in a reinforced cellar every full moon, Aleksandr managed to get a job in Nottingham, by a small company named 'Games Workshop', known for creating and selling role playing games and miniature wargames.

Here his knowledge of magic and magical creatures had led him to live a very productive corporate life and eventually he managed to secure a job as one of the lead designers when it came to the 'Warhammer' line of games. He even managed to work a part of his were wolf curse into the Space Wolf Space Marines.

With doing his job extremely well, no one really cared that he took a vacation every few weeks for three days.

Than in 1995 the Doranians appeared above Earth and battered the planet into submission with kinetical strikes. Aleksandr was caught and shipped off world as a slave with several hundred thousand others.

Eventually he ended up in the not very gentle care of a female Zatarian pirate, Ani Zalak. One year after the invasion Zalak's ship, the _Kobajashi_ _Maru,_ crossed a moons orbit and the radiation from the moon reacted with Alexanders curse.

It cost the lives of twenty other pirates before he was put down, several dozen plasma flash wounds closing.

After reverting back to human, Aleksandr was questioned by Zalak. Needless to say that he sung like a bird. Zalak ended up researching the were wolf curse and its possibilities.

After a few weeks she found a way to trigger the transformation and turn Aleksandr into a fully transformed were wolf without having to be close to a moon.

Creating a special collar, she was able to trap Aleksandr into the were wolf form nearly permanently, through she had more in mind for him. Being the daughter of the infamous Cycler Zalak, she knew his work to create a mindless berserker very well.

So, she stripped Aleksandr of any memory that she deemed to be related to his personality, leaving out factual memories like being able to drive a car, using a type writer or the various Warhammer Codexes of fictional work, leaving a nearly mindless, but highly intelligent predator.

From there she used her new 'pet' to infect five other human slaves she acquired through various means, likwise turning them into these mindless berserkers she liked to use to raid a ship, station or even small colonies.

Over time she even used cybernetic implants to make her 'pets' more effective. Cognitive implants that improves sight, smell, hearing and even a link between them to create a highly effective pack of predators.

She never knew that it would be her end one day.

--

Ani Zalak smirked to herself as she looked at the hull of the Doranian shuttle craft that slowly hovered into the great space between the main body and the engineering section of her ship.

Long ago her father had bought this ship of the Doranians as a birthday gift. Of course she had had to run it through a nearly complete overhaul, adding gravity, shields and a slipstream drive to the warship. That was all she had to add however, save for some smaller things, as the ship appeared to have been build by a race that knew how to hurt others. The weapons were extremely powerful and even without shields it could take much punishment.

And that it had an acceleration that put many ships of a comparable Quantum 2 tech level to shame was an added bonus. As was a completely new FTL drive that utilized another dimension to move from point A to point B. Not that she ever intended to sell it to anyone. It was just too perfect to drop on top of a target and raid it.

"Is it really necessary to use them?" she heard her first in command say as he glanced at the six wolf like predators that growled at him, ready to tear him apart at the order of their mistress.

Zalak chuckled dangerously.

"Its been some time since they had decent Doranian," she noted." We are only interested in the slaves. I heard they got Shin'bi aboard and those will get us a good price on Jurai."

Her second in command swallowed and his eyes once again were drawn to the six beasts. He would never get used to them. And once he had managed to get enough money out of this gig, he would settle down somewhere without any large predators.

--

Harry swallowed as he heard the docking clamps of the large vessels gripping down on the hull of the shuttle and looked at von Bismark. By now von Bismark had been able to get hold on the single weapons locker on the entire shuttle and opened it, bringing three Doranian Plasma Rifles out into the open. Each had to be easily the size of a MaDeuce and Harry was willing to bet that it weighted as much. And von Bismark was handling it as if it was a normal rifle.

Von Bismark looked at Harry.

"Are you able to do that magic stuff again?" he wondered and Harry swallowed.

"I guess," he said after a moment.

"You can do some sort of shield?"

"Uhm..." Harry said and swallowed again." Yes..."

Von Bismark nodded and looked towards the docking airlock, where a plasma lance seemed to now eat itself through the material.

"You come with us than. Hikaru, Saryo, take the other rifles and follow us. McPherson, you remain here and try to get us away."

"Sure," the pilot said wryly." We'll just die when they get through the lock and we break away instead of being gunned down. Vacuum sucks..."

Harry cast a glare at her and breathed in as he followed von Bismark and the Shin'bi. There was little in the way to hide behind in the corridor that connected the bridge of the shuttle with the docking airlock and so von Bismark and the two Shin'bi crotched down, while the other four dragonoids prepared to launch themselves through the air and at the attackers.

On the airlock the circle of glowing white metal slowly closed and Harry breathed in deep. Slowly he pulled up his arm. Not knowing what he should do else, he opened his heavily scarred right hand, thanking god that the serve plasma burns had destroyed just about any pain nerves as one or two of the scars opened up and leaked blood.

"Pretago!" he yelled and again he was surprised to see how the familiar shield charm burst out from his hand, forming a translucent film through the corridor.

At the same moment, the airlock clanged into the corridor and Harry half expected Stormtroopers to bust through the opening, followed by Darth Vader.

He certainly didn't expect were wolfs.

"Oh bloody hell..."

--

The human mind is a wonderful thing. It can do many things even the most advanced computer can't do. It can delude itself, it can create imagination and whole secondary personalities.

This is what happened in the mind of the mindless were wolf once known as Aleksandr Mellings. Most of his memories were gone, as was his personality. But that didn't mean that his subconsciousness wasn't active. Trying to become independent again and less willing to spend time trapped as a were wolf, the subconsciousness of the man once known as Aleksandr Mellings looks for a way out. Just like the magic trapped and integrated into his body during the nearly two years of constantly being a were wolf.

He snarled as he was the first to jump through the still glowing circle of hot metal, willing and quite able to tear through just about any resistance on the other side, even heavy powered armor. His look swept through the room before getting locked onto the face of a single about eighteen year old young men in ratty clothing.

Memories that had not been removed sprung up in the nearly empty mind of the beast he was currently. The look of the young mans face, the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, the green eyes and the outstretched hand, just as the translucent magical shield presented itself to the mind and his subconsciousness latched onto the memory, as it as the first real thought since the mind was nearly wiped clean two years ago.

The beast stopped and with it, so did its brethren. The beasts mind began to work, its subconsciousness desperately looking around to find anything that looked like a decent memory. And it discovered several memories that could, if properly adjusted, be used as memories to create a new personality. One that would be able to be free.

At the same time, the subconsciousness began to access the neural link to the other beasts. Normally used to better be able to coordinate their attacks, the link began to burst with activity as the subconsciousnesses of the beasts of all things exchanged informations and thoughts.

By now magic began to react to the newly created personality. Wrapping magic around itself and its brethren the beast changed its were wolf curse through sheer accumulated magic that now found a way to be used for something, anything.

Outside of the raging mind of the new personality, Harry Potter stared at the display in front of him, like just about everyone from either side, be it former slave or pirates.

Harry had seen Remus Lupin transform once, but this was something else. He could feel powerful magic being released and wrapped around the six were wolfs as they began to change to a more human form. But not in the way he was used to. None of the wolfs lost much of their height or muscle mass, while most of the fur retracted into the body, still leaving some fur out. Their faces changed to human, but the fangs and the yellow eyes of the wolven forms still remained.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" the first of the group screamed out.

The massive hand of one of the part wolfs reached for the massive shock collar around his neck and ripped it off like it was made of thin paper, throwing it through the room.

"FOR RUSS AND THE WOLFEN TIME!" screamed another.

Five of the six turned their massive bodies around, while the first one stared at Harry. It was not an evil stare, it was more one of wonder and if he had just seen Jesus or something along those lines. Harry on the other hand felt strangely inadequate as he stared back at the massive, hairy and very naked man.

"For you, my Emperor," the man said and there was no mistake to be made who he addressed as he still looked at Harry.

Harry just repeated himself as the giant of a man turned around and the screaming of pain and dismemberment started on the pirates side of the airlock.

"Oh, bloody hell!"


	4. Chapter 4

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 3

--

Tom Marvolo Riddle, more commonly known as 'I am Lord Voldemort', 'You Know Who', 'He Who Must Not Be Named' or recently 'That Bloody Traitor To Mankind', scratched what passed as his chin, considering his options.

He had been very lucky that he had managed to get the full support of the Dementors and with them been able to take over Azkaban as a hide out directly following the Invasion of the Doranian. Hiding the place under a Fidelius, just like Dumbledore had done with Hogwarts, he managed to elude the Doranians.

Working with them, was another stroke of genius. Sure they were as much, maybe even less, worth as muggles, but he had to acknowledge their capabilities. They had pretty wiped out the entire government of the Wizarding World and most of the muggle world in less than a day after all. And using the muggles as slaves was just about the same he had intended to do with them anyway.

Now he didn't have to worry much about the muggles, if there wasn't Hogwarts and 'Operation Atlantis' as the old man called it. But at the same time, 'Operation Atlantis' was the only reason why the Invaders even considered working with him and let him and his cronies do as they liked. Killing, maiming and the like, while making sure to have at least a certain impact in 'Operation Atlantis' and other pockets of resistence.

Not only that, Voldemort was still following his own plans. He might had been forced to adapt them. No trying to get to know a certain prophecy, the Ministry was destroyed after all, for one thing. Another thing was to learn how the Doranians were doing things.

He hated to admit it, but their technology, their muggle ways were more powerful than most magic. Magic wasn't able to create whole starships and move among the stars after all to enslave other lesser forms of life. Their weapons, especially the one that had totally destroyed London, was another thing.

He looked at the letter in his hands. Snape was still doing a good job of spying at the Headmaster and notifying him about certain operations of the resistance.

And now he had a full prophecy for him.

"The lost hero will return," he read out loud, ignoring the screams of a dying muggle somewhere close by," Descending from the heavens in a green ark, advised by the Minbari not of the Minbari, the hiding dragon, the recent ancient and the wolven man of faith, he will free the lands from oppression. Handling the heretics of man, he will be proclaimed as ruler of man, denying it. Uniting men, he will stride among the stars, bringing peace and freedom through the sword. Long live the hero."

He let the sheet of paper drop down and looked out of the window in the office that used to belong to the old director of the former prison.

He had a sneaking suspicion who this 'lost hero' happened to be.

"Potter..." he said, his voice dripping with scorn." Yet another damn prophecy about you..."

He leaned back and closed his eyes.

But there was still the other prophecy about. The one involving Potter and himself.

Voldemort didn't knew that there were prophecies being made about someone before the previous was resolved. This one obviously was.

On the other hand...

Voldemort had tried to find out if Potter had been taken of planet and sold as a slave and than buy him, but that had proven to be hard. Maybe he might be able to find him later.

What if he killed Potter?

Was this particular prophecy void?

Or maybe the prophecy was concerning himself?

He smirked. Without a doubt he knew that he would be the one who would kill Potter. He was stronger and had much more experience using magic. He also doubted that Potter had much time to practice magic while being a slave.

He scratched was passed as his chin again.

Where could he get a 'green arc'? And what was a Minbari?

--

Commander Senkal frowned as he looked down onto the blue brown and white marble of the planet that was called Earth by its inhabitants.

He let go of a low grumbling noise and his ears fanned out while the hairs on his neck stood on end. As if he could cower the whole planet with it.

But it was far from that easy.

Slowly but surely this whole planet was becoming a nightmare for everyone who was assigned to it. It had all begun two and a half cycles ago, just after the initial successes of the Invasion and the first loads of new slaves being herded together and shipped off planet.

Back than Senkal had only be the commander of a Cruiser, but he could still remember how several of the initial landing sites had suddenly disappeared in the infernal detonations of thermonuclear weapons. No one had known where they had come from. There had been no missiles raising up from the surface of the planet, like one normally would think about when thinking about the deployment of nuclear weapons from such a primitive race.

And these 'humans' were primitive. They had just barely made a step into space. They should have been easy pray for the Doranian Protectorate. Invaded, crushed and turned into slaves in under a cycle. They hadn't.

Far from it.

While the areas with the largest populations where under firm control, even that 'control' was far from being as strong as those of any other slave planet in the Protectorate.

Every single day he was getting multiple reports about explosives that detonated close to a patrol, a command building or even inside a military base. Every single day he was getting reports of sniper attacks on his troops.

And that was only in those areas they had control over.

The rest of the planet, close to seventy percent were not under their control and the humans were able to somehow gather, build new weapons and than attack his troops in surprisingly coordinated attacks.

Sometimes he wished that he could simply order to glass the planet and be done with it.

But that was not easy. It was close to impossible. It would make the Protectorate appear weak. And appearing weak was nothing the Protectorate could afford. Not after breaking the Quantum 2 barrier and the Invasion in Narn space.

The Narn Invasion was taking more resources than the Generals back on Doran had anticipated. By now they were already sinking half of the reserves into the Narn Invasion. And the Centauri made it not much easier with their Invasion of Narn space. One time they would meet up with the Doranian ships and Senkal wondered if it would come to a war between the Protectorate and the Republic.

Having to push more into Narn space was one reason that they couldn't appear weak to everyone else around them. Glassing a planet was like admitting that they had been beaten by a planet of primitives.

Even orbital bombarding would look like they couldn't control the planet and its population. Not that they really were controlling them.

The position was prime as well. Right between the Jurians and the Minbari spheres of control the Protector and his Generals thought that Earth was perfect once the Protectorate could realistically invade against either.

Normally Senkal would have been send to Narn space with his Q2 Cruiser, but it looked like his old commander didn't like that he had to deal with a half-breed like Senkal. So he had remained at Earth and put into command over the troops on the planet and the ships in orbit.

He punched the window pane he was standing at. His hand exploded into pain at the punch against the diamond hard material of the armored window, but it was a good way to loose at least some of his anger.

Over the last one and a half cycle this planet had become the place where the higher ups would send troops, commanders and ships they didn't like. For the troops and their commanders the planet was pretty much a death trap. Sooner or later they would be killed by a human or one of their primitive, but efficient machines and weapons.

But he had to admit that slowly he was coming to respect the humans. They were fighting against overwhelming odds and didn't seem to know the words 'Give Up'. In a way they reminded him of himself. Being a half-breed he had to fight his whole life, he had to be twice as good as everyone else to survive and get into the position he was in now.

But he still knew that this planet was going to be the dead end for his career.

Senkal turned around and stalked towards the door. He needed to blow more steam than the punch earlier. Fighting against some of his Marines sounded like a good idea.

Especially since he just knew that he would die in orbit of this forsaken planet rather than get back into any real fight.

--

"Everybody wants to rule the world..."

Colonel Marcus Parker sighed as he looked out of his seat and down on the scorched landscape. A shudder run down his neck as he remembered the time he had been here last.

The Huey passed a hill top and allowed him to have a good look at the partly glassed landscape. Nine Years back this used to be the small sleepy town of Cascade Falls. Than President Bush had been forced to drop a nuke to keep up the appearance of a working Strategic Defense Initiative.

Parker breathed in deep. Cascade Falls lay silent in front of them on their way towards Fort Teller.

Unbidden the images of a destroyed city Seattle from two different times came to him.

One had been nine years ago when he had helped push the Soviets back and deny the Chinese the ability to land their own invasion troops and just barely preventing another Cascade Falls.

The second time had been just weeks after the Doranian Invasion. The city that had been reconstructed from the ashes of the Third World War, had been destroyed again. This time completely.

"Ten minutes Colonel."

He shook his head as the Huey passed Cascade Falls, the Geiger Counter just barely ticking anymore, not like back than, just after the nuke had hit. Somewhere down there was the wreckage of an Abrams containing the remains of Captain Mark Bannon.

Somewhere behind these hills and mountains was Fort Teller and with it everything that remained from the United States.

The Doranians didn't care very much about the place. Too many mountains and most of the base had been destroyed during 'First Impact'. The deep bunkers that used to contain the failed SDI project were largely untouched and Cascade Fall close by. As far as Parker knew, they didn't like radioactivity. Humans could take more than they could.

Another reason was that Area 51 had outsourced much of its research to Fort Teller. That meant just about everything from the crash of a small Vree saucer in Roswell.

"One minute."

Parker looked up and out of the window of the Huey. He could see the number of rather crude plasma weapons that were placed in the perimeter of Fort Teller, moving based on their targeting computers, trailing every Doranian craft that crossed their line of sight, ready to shoot at them.

Parker didn't think that they would do much damage, but they were only the last line of defense. Modified nuclear armed missiles were the first line of defense for Fort Teller at the moment, through from what he had heard, the egg heads were close to cracking the secrets of the Vree shields and than it was only a matter of month before Fort Teller had its own shield. He was just glad that they had already made good work of the Vree reactors.

The Huey closed to one of the landing pads, one with a Humvee close by.

Parker sighed again. Time to meet up with General Sawyer again.

--

Harry didn't know whether or not be horrified about what the werewolfs were doing with the crew of the pirate ship McPherson had identified as _EAS Kobojashi Maru_. Through he was a little fuzzy about if these six 'werewolfs' were even werewolfs anymore. Harry had literally felt how magic had rolled of the first to change and the other had been influenced by his magic.

Now they were following the screams of pain and dismemberments, as well as here and there a scream of 'For The Emperor', 'For Russ and the Wolfen Time' and 'Die, Heretic'. The path of dismemberment seemed to split up as the six, Harry had gone to call them 'Space Wolfes' to himself, began to work their way into just about every path of the ship.

He glanced over to McPherson who looked around in something akin to remembrance and von Bismark who was more looking around in wonder.

"A far cry from 'Frau im Mond'," he said after a while making Harry wonder what that was.

"The artificial gravity is new through," McPherson noted and Harry could see how she seemed to await to loose her feet under her any minute, always holding onto one of the rails that were build into the bulkheads of the ship.

"Just as the art and the other colors," she continued." Who in their right minds brings art into a warship?"

"Art lovers?" Harry wondered as they passed a very large painting that looked like something Picasso could have made.

Harry blinked as he noted a small signature in a corner of the image. It was a Picasso!

"Art lovers who stole from Earth," he added and pointed at the large painting." This seems to be a Picasso."

McPherson stared at the painting for a moment, while von Bismark blinked.

"What?" he wondered.

"Not important," Harry said and noted that it was mysteriously of blood strains, considering the pair of beheaded and gutted alien corpses close by.

They reached an open shaft and McPherson eyed it nervously.

"Under zero gravity this should lead to the bridge," she noted.

Somewhere above them they could hear a scream and a whimper of panic and Harry didn't think much as he simply jumped into the shaft. He had learned to know NoGrav shafts and instinctively knew that this was one of them. With skill he had been forced to learn during a six month of hard work in a zero-gravity mine, he grabbed a handrail and pushed himself upwards.

"Stop!" he called out as he reached the opening in the shaft where the rather pathetic girlish screams whimpering came from and swung himself out of the shaft.

His landing was one of those skills he had yet to master, as he tumbled in the artificial gravity that returned to him. He whirled with his arms and tried to grab one of the ever present handrails, failing in such a way that he nearly fell back into the NoGrav shaft.

As he managed to get his balance back and breathed deep in and out from his not so close brush with death, he was treated with another rather comical look, that reminded him of watching one of those American shows.

The first 'Wolf that had changed, was holding one of the pirates into the air, ready to pretty much tear of his head. The comical part was that the rather hairy 'wolf was completely in the nude, while the blue skinned and humanoid alien looked very much like the classical nerd. A pair of thick glasses, buckteeth, wild black hair, a white short sleeved shirt, the single chest pocket equipped with a pocket protector that was filled with pens and other devices, to short brown pants, over long white socks and a pair of polished shoes.

"My Emperor?" the large 'wolf asked and looked at him, still wanting to remove the aliens head.

"Let him go," Harry said, feeling very much like doing what the alien had already done, crapping his pants." We need someone to fly this ship."

Harry had the feeling that this guy didn't know a thing about flying this ship, but he did look too pathetic, dangling there like a rag doll, that he could be a real threat. Besides Harry believed that he could take on a nerd, especially after finding that he still could do magic.

"As you wish, my Emperor," the 'wolf said after a moment, where he had looked at the alien and simply let him go to drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes, before scrambling away from the 'wolf on all four and hide behind one of the consoles.

Just now Harry noted the still bleeding corpses of several pirates laying in several corners and swallowed.

"Uhm... who are you?" he finally asked the 'wolf very carefully trying not to stare at...

The 'wolf grinned at him showing his pearly whites through he did have en longed canines.

"I am Aleksandr Erikson, my Emperor," he said and his voice seemed to boom through the bridge," Wolf Rune Priest of the Space Wolf Chapter, 13th Company."

Harry swallowed and breathed in and wanted to ask something else as he was interrupted by a gasp from behind him.

"That guy is hung like a horse!" the voice of McPherson called out and Harry closed his eyes, once again feeling a little inadequate when it came to his own equipment.

"Someone get him a pair of pants," he finally called out with a little bit of envy in his voice." Or a freaking loincloth or something."

Something that appeared to be a flag of some kind sailed through the air from where the alien nerd had hidden behind a console, hitting Aleksandr on the head and neatly covering it. Aleksandr pulled the flag from his head and growled in the direction of the Nerd, who got himself known again through a louder whimper of fear. Aleksandr got the picture however and used the flag to make him sowhat decent.

Harry got his next bad mental image as McPherson passed Aleksandr on her way to one console, while winking at him and licking her lips. Harry did not want that image in his head wondering where to get a bottle of bleach.

Von Bismark was the next to enter the bridge and stopped next to Harry surveying the room and than raising an eyebrow at Aleksandr.

"Wasn't that a little excessive?" he wondered and made Harry wonder how a German came to use British understatement.

"At least something goes right," came McPhersons voice again and everyone turned to look at her, even the alien nerd looked up from behind his hiding place, but ready to duck any time he needed to." They didn't change the GUI?"

"GUI?" was von Bismarks question.

"Graphical User Interface," McPherson said after a moment of letting her fingers move across the display of the console like it was a console in Star Trek.

Harry moved closer behind her and noted that it was a far cry from being a Star Trek console through as you could actually understand it, at least if you could read Intercosmo. McPherson let her fingers dance over the console and after a moment had changed the language of the display to English.

"Its a beauty," came from the nerd, who by now was a little more sure of himself as he very slowly stood up." And an art in its simplicity."

"Simple?" McPherson wondered and called up a dialog that should start Emergency protocols if Harry read it correctly." Its far from simple..."

The nerd huffed.

"Its much more simple than anything I have ever seen," he said and very varily moved closer, keeping away from Aleksandr." And the underlaying code is a work of art. Highly optimized and modular! There is no problem in adding new code modules for new hardware with its User Interface."

"Right..." McPherson said after a moment of hearing the nerd rant over the computer.

"I needed only three weeks to write the interfaces for shields, artificial gravity and the slipstream drive. And who knew that the artist that created the ships OS has implemented an Intercosmo language layout?"

"Because its Japanese," was McPhersons comment, but the Nerd continued.

"I'm just this close to compiling an AI for the computer. The optimizing is a work of art and I could compress the AI's routines by a hundred times!"

He was interrupted however as McPherson looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Why didn't you ever notice the tachyon emergency broadcast?" she wondered and Harry noted that she had pulled up a log file that was nearly overflowing from the same entry.

"Huh?" was the nerds comment and he stopped next to the console, making McPherson roll her eyes.

"I mean this Earth Alliance standard tachyon emergency broadcast..."

That was followed by her muttering something about Nerds, rooms and 'get laid' which added another bad mental image to Harry's growing library of bad mental images.

--

"Leaving slipstream in ten... Nine..."

Battle Leader Hak'ey sighed as he stared at the display in front of him, cracked at several places, reminiscent of a number of battles he didn't want to fight over the past two month after the destruction of New Omelos. Half of the men and women on the bridge were injured to some degree, letting him wonder if the gods had forsaken them.

"Eight... Seven... Six..."

With the Doranians finding New Omelos, they had lost their new home, even if it was more along the lines of exile in shame. Only a dozen warships and about a hundred freighters what hadn't been converted into orbital habitats and even a single habitat had survived the Doranian attack and was now on the run from the galaxy.

"Five... Four... Three..."

Less than sixty thousand Dilgar remained.

For the n-th time, Hak'ey cursed Jha'dur and her ancestors for starting the war that had destroyed their once proud civilization. He had been dumb back than. Young and easily impressed he had let himself draw in by her charisma, like so many others of his people.

"Two... One..."

Now they were on the run again, trying to find a place for their race to survive the wrath of the Galaxy that was still burning brightly even after more than thirty years since the end of the war.

What demon had posessed Jha'dur to attack Jurians and Minbari fleetbases?

"Leaving slipstream."

The gray-whiteness of Slipstream disappeared from the display, showing the multiple colors of gas coulds surrounding this system in a large nebular. Not very far away was the green and white marble of a habitable planet a scout had found not even a week before by pure chance.

The first survey of the scout had returned the data of a cold and harsh planet, but at least if had a significantly thick atmosphere they could breath. There would be no need for bio domes, as those would eat away vast resources they didn't have and the land could most likely grow those plants they could eat. And if there was enough wild animals they would be able to eat meat again.

The thought of eating ombra again made his mouth water.

"Orbit is clear. I'm getting large quantum and EM resonance. FTL and STL sensors are down. We get only optical data."

Hak'ey nodded. It was one of the reasons they had decided to use this planet. No one would ever find them here and they could hopefully rebuild their civilization.

By the Gods, he hoped that he would live to see a city growing on that planet.

"Battle Leader?"

He turned towards the Force Leader that had spoken up.

"Yes?"

"I am getting a very strong EM signal, it comes from the gas giant of the system."

Hak'ey narrowed his eyes.

"An EM signal..." he noted.

"It is amplitude modulated. Maybe a communication signal."

"Curious..."

--

There was a large flash of multicolored light as a massive yellow and orange object simply appeared next to a sole asteroid that tumbled around its sun on an orbit between the sole terrestrial planet and the sole gas giant of the planet.

The object looked like someone had build a large ellipsoid and halved it from the top to the bottom. Vast engines propelled the ship forward. On its hull hundred meter tall letters of Ancient descent were painted, spelling out the name of the large ship _Pride of Ferrol_.

"Super luminary segment Three five ends," the soft female voice of Artemis, the ships AI, called out through the command center that bustled with life.

Squat blue skinned humanoids with copper colored hair were moving through the large command center.

Barin Makar, the commander of the ship sighed as he looked at the large transparent section of ten meter thick armor that protected the Command Center. They had reached the goal of their three years long journey through deep space, using the _Pride of Ferrol_ to save the last Ferrons from alien slavery.

The entire mission was a shot into the dark. No one knew if the new super luminary drive really worked as advised.

"Deploy sensory array," came the command from one of the ships sub commanders, while another ordered for the parasites to be deployed.

They had been lucky. The _Pride of Ferrol_ had been designed as a large scale colony ships, specially designed to develop a colony that would completely independent from the home worlds, providing vast production capacities for years and decades to come, able to build everything from simple screws, over highly integrated circuits to complete warships. Its parasites, Frigates, Corvettes and gunships were to provide defense against anything that might be out here in the depth of space.

But they had only been enough to keep back the alien invaders back until the_ Pride of Ferrol_ had been able to launch and bring two hundred thousand people into the safety of a far away colony. ten thousand of them were the elite of science, economy and military.

A hologram hovered in the center of the large Command Center of the twelve kilometers tall, two kilometers long and one kilometer thick mothership, showing data Artemis had already taken with its multitude of sensory systems.

"I recommend tight band laser link communication between the mothership and the parasites as well as the use of laser based detection and measurement systems," Artemis noted," I am reading serve resonances in the electromagnetic spectrum that renders EM sensors and communication systems nearly useless."

Makar nodded to himself.

"I second that recommendation." he said after a moment.

Artemis was a sister AI of Ferrols AI and three years of travel had shown everyone that Artemis would always work with them, just like the Ferrol AI had done for thousands of years.

"Sensory network on standby," Artemis noted, taking about several hundred small probes, each powered by a small fusion reactor and driven by a small gravitic drive that were streaking out into space to cover a larger area and act like a giant sensor.

"Network active, receiving data."

There was silence as everyone held their breath, waiting for Artemis to say that she found a habitable planet.

"I read two planets. One ferrolic planet just inside the outer life zone of the sun. Most likely cold but breathable atmosphere. Presumed common temperature is about five to six above ice. One gas giant with five moons. One asteroid belt between both planets."

She stopped for a moment.

"Interesting..."

Makar blinked. Artemis wasn't supposed to say 'Interesting'.

"I read a electromagnetic amplitude modulated signal originating from the gas giant. I am currently unable to triangulate the exact origin of the signal. I presume it is in orbit around the gas giant."

--

"FTL complete."

Lieutenant Felix Gaeta breathed in deep as he said that, pushing down the feeling of illness he always felt during FTL. It was always as if someone was wrapping a sling around his stomach and than pulled him through a singularity.

"Report," he heard Tigh say and again breathed in deep.

If anyone ever saw him throw up or even showing a minute amount of illness, he would never live this one down.

"_Pegasus_ reports in," the voice of Dualla's replacement said," as do every ship of the fleet."

Gaeta breathed out and sighed. Thanks the gods that they didn't loose anyone. Than he turned around and looked at his display, trying to pin point their position.

"Mr. Gaeta," Admiral Adama's voice cut through his thoughts like a hot knife." This is not where we wanted to be."

Seeing the ball of a large gas giant hanging on his display gave Gaeta the same thought. In a flurry of activity he leafed through the numerous sheets of paper where he had made his calculations for the jump and cursed silently as he noted a single error in the last calculation. Making a short calculation in his head he exhaled in relief and turned around.

"A little miscalculation," he said," We are just about a hundred million kilometers off."

Adama's looked at him, over the rims of his glasses and frowned slightly.

"I want you next calculation to be correct, Lieutenant."

"Yes sir," Gaeta said and exhaled in relief again and turned back to his console.

"DRADIS contact. Its huge!"


	5. Chapter 5

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 4

--

Aiko shuddered slightly as she looked around in the corridor of the _Kobajashi Maru_ that lead away from the bridge. She could see several decapitated pirates lying around, one even impaled to a bulkhead with something that looked like a naginata.

In the thirty years of her life she had seen a few battles and battle scenes, but nothing was close to what could be best described as carnage on this ship. Even if it were pirates, the way they had been killed was just too much even for her.

She breathed in deep, trying to tune out the smell of blood that was hanging in the corridor, as she reached a door.

"Shinosuke?" she asked carefully as she looked into the room behind the door.

The room appeared to be a mess hall of some kind and thankfully there were no corpses laying around.

Shinosuke sat at one of the tables of the mess hall, head buried under his arms and wings, as if he tried to tune out the world around him. The shockstick he had been ready to use against the pirates was laying next to him on the table.

"Go away," he mumbled and pulled his wings closer to himself." I need to think..."

Aiko sighed and shook her head, before drawing one of the chairs from the table and sitting down on it. She made a face as she tried to find a comfortable way to sit in the chair. Why couldn't these pirates build chairs where she could put her tail through the back?

"Shin-chan," she said and got a growl from him that made her smile a little. It never failed to get a reaction out of her twin brother.

"What is going on?" she asked." You've never been like this."

Not even during the capture by the pirates and them being sold. She knew him very well, as well as one could know ones sibling. She knew when he was nervous and didn't know what he should do.

It didn't really make any sense. He used to be the heir to Master Naruto, before he was killed by the pirates, but even than Shinosuke hadn't been like this. He had always been calm and collected, ever since he began learning from the Master himself.

Shinosuke pulled his wings back from around him, letting them settle down to his shoulder and looked at his sister with one eye.

"It's this... gaijin..." he said after a moment." The gaijin mahoutsukai..."

Aiko blinked. Shinosuke was mahoutsukai, he knew if someone else was mahoutsukai like him. Aiko didn't really know what that had to do with anything. Sure it was surprising than other people had their own mahoutsukai, but the great council had always speculated that they existed ever since the first pirate had attacked.

"Why?"

Shinosuke's other eyes opened and looked at her and Aiko could see the light shudder of nervousness run through his wings. There it was again, why was he nervous. He hadn't been nervous through all this.

"Do you remember when we were send to the Nakisha shrine the day after out tenth summer?"

She looked back at him, blinking again.

"Of course I remember," she answered and sighed." The miko told us who was capable of mahou..."

Shinosuke nodded slowly and breathed in deep before he pulled up from the table and massaged his muzzle, another sign of his nervousness.

"That wasn't all," he said after a moment." The miko made an oracle about me and my destiny..."

"WHAT?"

Aiko all but jumped up from her chair, knocking it back over and sending it clattering to the ground. She stared at him. Her twin had an oracle hanging over his head? That couldn't be anything good.

"Why do you think Master Naruto made me his heir?" he asked and his nervousness seemed to leave him at that moment." I maybe a powerful mahoutsukai, but not so powerful that he would have made me his heir without reason."

Aiko turned to look towards the door. The oracle on her brother had something to do with the gaijin, Harry...

"What is it?" she asked and turned her head back to her brother to look into his eyes.

"I am the kanpaku," he answered and flinched slightly." I am the one who was oracled to find the Shogun. I am to be his advisor."

Aiko stared at her brother and sat down. The chair still hadn't moved from its place where it had fallen down and she sat heavily on the ground deeper than she intended to be. Hadn't she been as shocked about her brothers revelation, it might have been funny.

"No..."

She heard her brother breathe in deep.

"He can't..."

"He is," Shinosuke said after a moment." Everything fits until now. He was under chains, like us. He is marked my lightning, that scar on his forehead. He used mahou while he thought it to be lost. His presence caused beasts to turn into men, sort of. And he brought us on a ship named like a forest."

He breathed in deep and Aiko managed to get herself up from the ground, pulling herself up to the table to see her brother close his eyes.

"The only things missing is the fourth city of tongues, build in among the stars, and that he is of the blood of the serpent and the fire bird."

Suddenly there was a horrified look on Aiko's face.

"But that means..." she swallowed, not finishing the sentence.

Shinosuke only nodded.

Several meters down the corridor on the bridge. Harry Potter sneezed.

--

Admiral Takano looked up towards the small display above the screen that showed the gray whiteness of slipstream. The numbers of distance and time on the display seemed to crawl by as _Yamato Takeru_ speed towards its target star at five hundred times the speed of light.

The Yamato could have been faster than that, but Takano had to keep the other vessels of the small fleet in mind that weren't fitted with the new improved Quantum Slipstream drive. Just like it was fitted with artificial gravity.

Six hours and they were going to reach their destination.

Takano wondered if fleet command had made the right decision to send a third of their fleet, fifty ships to the Sakugenchi system, as it was already known in the fleet. One one hand they were going to build up a fleet base and a colony in that system, but on the other hand he felt like they were going to leave Zaitaku defenseless.

His eyes moved towards the small display that showed the ships of the fleet. Fifty warships, including the Yamato, twenty five heavy five megaton transport ships with prefabricated systems for a fleet base and a colony and twenty troops transports for colonists and personal.

The entire operation was designed to make the new colony as independent from Zaitaku as possible to give the Shin'bi the ability to free their homeworld should the pirates every decide to invade and take it over. It was unlikely that the pirates would ever win on the planet itself, thanks to massive subplanetary installations build during the cause of the pirate problem, but their orbital weapons would make any real attack dangerous at best as so ships were always needed.

And the new fleet base would have to build those.

The entire operation was based on the data from a returning survey ship that had found a habitable planet In a system that appeared to be uninhabitable thanks to the massive Quantum and EM interferences. Two planets and a single asteroid belt orbited the sole sun nearly hidden inside a gas cloud only about fourty lightyears away from Zaitaku.

The sole habitable planet was rather cold, but the temperatures allowed to grow food in glass houses all year long and had multiple very useful ore deposits the survey ship had found. The most important deposit of them all was a very large deposit of CV Embinium, the mineral they needed to build most quantum systems. Hidden beneath the thick ice cab of the southern hemisphere, it was large enough that some scientists theorized that it was responsible for the interferences, through it appeared that the gas giant in the outer system was equally responsible.

The survey hadn't brought much about the gas giant. It had several moons, but they weren't really interesting, through they could be a good position for a secondary fleet base just in case.

That only left one thing.

A priest said that the Shogun would be found just before the fleet had left Zaitaku. An older Oracle, in fact the oldest Oracle about the Shogun had said that he would appear in the time the Shin'bi would need him the most.

In fact the Oracle had been made by one of the Teachers that had brought the Shin'bi their way of life.

He breathed in deep. When his people needed him most. Right now that could only mean that The Pirate problem would become even more of a problem. Maybe even something... more than Pirates...

--

Six hundred years were a long time. Especially if the one perceiving these six hundred years happens to be an artificial intelligence, based inside a large computer system meant to control a large space station meant to support up to one million people, human or alien.

Jack was one of these artificial intelligences.

Missing more than about fifty percent of his common work load, since he hadn't to control about fifty percent of the stations systems, nor did he have to help or support the crew or the people living aboard.

Jack had wondered if he could get bored during the first month after Jeffrey Sinclair had gone into cold sleep. Ten years later he had found out that he could very well get bored and the numerous speakers all around the station had echoed with a nearly endless chorus of 'Bored, Bored, Boredy bored'.

Over the next ten years Jack had literally developed a new kind of music, sorely consisting of variations of the word 'bored' in several dozen languages and tones. The longest he had needed to say 'bored' had lasted a month for this single word.

At the end of these first twenty years of idleness, he had noted the first failures of his systems, small ones that would normally have been repaired by the crew, but there was no crew and as such no one able to repair these minor systems.

He then had needed five years to find a way around that particular problem, eventually upgrading his own software to provide him with solutions his creators hadn't thought of. In the end he had the full design of a rather primitive robotic drone he could use to repair the systems in question. The following year he had needed to reactivate the fabricator systems deep withing the stations industrial sector and build the first drone.

It had been a spectacular failure.

It detonated in a spec of white light, destroying parts of the fabricator line that had created it after the plans, sending Jack back to the drawing board.

The second design was less of a failure, at least until its simple navigation systems let it roll over the edge of a flight of stairs and destroyed most of its sensors.

The third design, build five years after the spectacular detonation of the first, wasn't a failure, but neither was it a real success. Its navigation was good, it didn't detonate, but it was rather clumsy and the first try to use it to repair something had resulted in the torch neatly serving a power line and electroducing the drone.

It was the fourth drone that was his first success and it was able to repair several systems, but not all of them. It was still to blunt to be of any use to repair anything really small, like a computer system. However it was very well able to handle anything up to complete reconstruction of entire rooms.

Jack called this fourth design a Scuzzer drone and build several hundred of them to handle most large scale maintenance.

But the smaller systems called for drones able to work and maintain them.

The fifth drone was smaller and mostly designed with the smaller systems in mind. Equipped with a higher level AI than the Sccuzzers, they were able to not only repair systems, but also run hardware diagnosis of the systems where Jack wasn't able to find the problem on a software base.

So he called them Diagnosis and Repair drones, or DRD for short. Like the Scuzzers he build several hundred of them.

Strangely enough both type of droids turned out to be highly individual AIs, as each appeared to develop its own personality over time. Of course that lead to several funny and interesting moments, like the live reenactment of 'The Life of Brian' about a hundred years after Jeffrey Sinclair had gone to sleep.

In this time, several other maintenance problems appeared. Neither Scuzzers nor DRDs were really very useful to maintain the hull of the station ans there were several stray asteroids that had destroyed transmitter arrays or defense systems.

Another new drone was needed. One that could do the work of both Scuzzers and DRDs free floating in space.

He called them Jockeys and only build two dozen of them.

Build them, he noted that he was slowly running out of materials to build his drones as well as hydrogen to run the fusion reactors of the stations on the absolute minimum powerlevel.

That needed a large drone that could catch asteroids and comets and bring them to Babylon 4 for break down. The result was the _Red Dwarf_, a thug boat that was build from two shuttles and four maintenance Furies.

But the lack of a crew and the fact that nothing happened made Jack a little paranoid. It wasn't very bad, but he started to wonder if those who would hear his beacon, might not be nice people. While he might be very capable of dealing with them in outer space, they had to board first, before Jack would know what they wanted. And neither Scuzzers and DRDs were really able to provide any defense for his inner systems.

So he designed and build two different defense druids. One was a large biped heavy assault unit that could provide heavy firepower, while the other was a light, nearly filigree drone that could very well be send through small spaces and ambush any attackers.

He called them ED and AMEE and build a hundred of each model and positioned them at any important section, like the reactors, the command center or his very own computer core.

But even if he had given each of his drones a high independence, they were not really good company and three hundred years after Jeffrey Sinclair began to sleep, he was bored again.

And discovered a very nice hobby, through he had to 'forget' one of Sinclairs last orders for it.

Gardening.

Setting the entire station under pressure again by pumping atmosphere back into it, he began to work on creating a nearly perfect 'wilderness' in the two large gravity cylinders.

And it was a hobby that nearly made him forget time.

Until a whole fleet of unknown ships appeared right next to Babylon 4 and he noted them on his sensors.

"Huh," he made and his voice sounded through the entire station." This is funny..."

--

"Normally this would be the part when alien monsters pop up and slowly decimate the troops send onto the derelict ship," Private Marson noted as the hatch of the Raptor opened.

While Lieutenant John Carter wanted to laugh, he shot the short Marine a short glare, telling him to shut up. Looking around, he did have a bad feeling about this, but he hoped that it was wrong.

Two hours ago the fleet had jumped into this system, just that they had appeared in orbit around the single gas giant of the system instead of the planet many in the fleet had began to call New Caprica. Not that Carter was one of those who wanted to settle down.

And they had just jumped into range of a large anchorage. So close in fact that it was fortunate that they hadn't jumped right on top of it. That could have been messy.

The anchorage was nearly ten kilometers in length, several times the size of even the Ragnar Anchorage and it had two rotating cylinders to simulate gravity. One was rotating inside the other. The level of engineering needed to successfully build something like that was staggering. Sure the Ragnar Anchorage had counter rotating sections as well, but they were not rotating inside of each other.

Half an hour ago they had left in three Raptors, trying to get inside the station and maybe secure it. One hour before that had been used to try and reach the crew of the Anchorage, but no one had answered. They had needed nearly twenty minutes to get to the bow of the Anchorage and on the way they found out that it had a set of very large and very powerful engines and various weapon turrets scattered over the surface, none of which they were able to fully identify.

And now they were standing inside a large hangar in the frontal part of the Anchorage, after the outer airlock had closed and pressurized. This made Carter nervous. It meant that there was someone in the station and this someone was most likely watching them.

Light suddenly flared up inside the hangar, causing several of his Marines to jump and look around. One or two even panicked slightly and shoot at the lights destroying some of them.

"Calm down!" Carter called out and breathed in himself." Someone **is** here and watches us."

He felt the looks of his Marines returning to him and breathed in deep.

"Marson, Argos," he said and looked into the direction of the two Marines." You remain here and keep an eye on the Raptors and the pilots."

"We can look after ourselves," Racetrack quipped up and glared out of the airlock of her Raptor.

Carter looked over to her. The rivalry between the Marines and the stick jockeys was well known and so it was not very surprising that scuttle butt held some interesting and embarrassing informations for each group.

"You can't even plot a good jump to Caprica."

Racetrack glared at him now, while some of the Marines chuckles, along with the pilots of the other Raptors.

"Hey, I found New Caprica!"

Carter rolled his eyes and looked back at his Marines.

"The rest comes with me," he said and pulled his gun closer to himself." Lets see who watches us. Capala, Martin, you take point."

Than he moved to walk towards the airlock on the other side of the hangar. Like in training, they piled on each side of the airlock, while Carter tried to find a way to open the airlock.

He didn't need to open it however, as it opened by itself.

The person on the other side of the airlock remained strangely calm as he looked into the business ends of several guns.

"Uhm... Welcome to Babylon 4?" the man said after a moment and in perfect Caprican.

The man was of average hight, with short cropped, graying hair. He very slowly dropped his hand, while making a show of it that he was holding no weapon.

"Ahm... Is it too late to say that there are no weapons allowed on this station?"

Carter looked at the man who was wearing rather normal clothing, through the short sleeved shirt was printed with a floral pattern that literally screamed at him with its different colors.

"Who are you?" he asked a moment later, slowly dropping the gunbarrel to the ground, through he could still pull it up to fire.

He gave a not towards his people, who followed his example.

"I'm Big Brother," the man said and gave them a hard glare before breaking out in a grin with a short wave with a jovial smirk." Only messing with ya. I'm Jack. Nice ta meet'cha."

"Lieutenant John Carter," Carter said after a moment of looking at that friendly face, wondering if that guy was a Cylon.

I might be the case, but Carter wasn't sure about that. The anchorage Jack had called Babylon 4 wasn't really something the Cylons would do. Why allow them aboard if they could have long since destroyed the fleet with its weapons?

"Are you the commander of this anchorage?" he than asked him.

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"I think you could call me the janitor and the gardener."

Carter was very sure that many of his Marines were blinking now.

"Gardener?" Martin wondered out loud and Jack gave her a disarming smirk.

"Hey, this station got over fourty five square kilometers of biosphere space. Someone had to look after them."

Than he looked a little thoughtfull.

"Hmmm... Looks like we got company," he said out loud and began to scratch his chin before raising an eyebrow." Dilgar by the looks of it. Curious..."

"Raptor Six come in," the very audible voice of Apollo came of the Raptors radio behind them." We just got company. An unknown ship just jumped in."

Jack found himself at the business end of the guns again.

"Was it something I said or did?"


	6. Chapter 6

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 5

--

Doctor Kevyn Andreyasn, scratched his chin as he wandered the halls of Hogwarts. The Teraport project was slowly moving towards its conclusion and with it he began to learn more and more about magic, even if he wasn't able to do magic.

Okay, maybe some mind magic. He had beaten just about intelligence test he ever had bothered with and he found himself being able to find solutions to many problems over time.

Around here he had been presented with the biggest challenge he could imagine, and with him most of his colleagues that had made it to Hogwarts in the course of Operation Atlantis. By now they laying the first theories about magic and how it shaped the world, coming down to the manipulation of space time to get the desired results by manipulating some form of higher dimensional energy that only certain people could manipulate.

But those were only theories.

Some real results had been made by hardening technology against magic in the first few weeks at Hogwarts. It was strange how easy it was, or rather how easy it was done with a number of magical runes scratched into the object you wanted to be hardened. It was a modified version of the 'Finite Incantum' spell that allowed other rune spells on the object to still affect it, but not in such a way that it would 'unharden' the object.

He stopped at a door and looked into the class room behind it.

Professor McGonagall was teaching Transfiguration to some of the few magical kids that were still in Hogwarts. It was a school after all.

He leaned into the door and listened to what McGonagall taught the kids. Right now they were to transfigurate a match into a needle.

Kevyn's head swirled around another thing through. The Teraport needed a little more computing power than he had projected. The Arthimancy calculations were rather complex through a magical person could do them on the fly if needed in some sort of intuitive process. But to transform the Arthimancy calculations into classical arythmic calculations was something they needed a powerful computer. Or several computers that would run the transformation calculations at the same time.

Transformation... Transfiguration...

He stopped, pulled the magically modified sunglasses from his face and massages his eyes.

"Professor?" he asked from the door and put his sunglasses back on." On a word?"

The elder woman raised an eyebrow and turned to her class.

"You continue trying to transfigurate your matches," she said." I will be outside to talk with Doctor Andreyasn."

The class chorused a 'Yes, Professor.' and McGonagall turned towards Kevyn.

"What can I do for you, Doctor?"

Kevyn eyed the class for a moment, the door was still open so that the Professor could get back in case of an emergency.

"I wondered about Transfiguration, Professor," he said and his eyes went back to the elder woman that could still put up a mean fight as far as he knew." I overheard your class and you said that one could transfigurate everything into everything else."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"Close, Doctor," she answered." You cannot conjure food for example."

Kevyn chuckled.

"But essentially all you need is just about any form of matter to create things from it."

McGonagall nodded.

"Essentially, yes."

Kevyn smiled, just like he had smiled when he had the basic idea of the Teraport device.

"You know I work on the Teraport in the 'Technomagical Lab'," he said." I hope you might come by later so we could talk a little more about Transfiguration."

"Oh?"

Kevyn chuckled again.

"I have an idea that might allow us to forget about those raids for supplies. Maybe we could create some sort of Fabber that takes care of creating everything we want, based on the saved blueprints."

Another thought stuck him, remembering one of the computer games he liked to play now and than 'Command & Conquer'. Maybe they could build, if the Fabber idea worked, a vehicle that could create whole bases and military equipment from scratch after being teraported to the target area?

Armor it, equip it with a few weapons and give it command and control systems and you could have some sort of Armored Command Unit.

Kevyn smirked.

"I'll see you later than..."

--

Harry eyed Aleksandr, still a little nervous about the 'Were Marine', or 'Space Wolf' as he even called himself. Being nervous around someone who had been forced to be a werewolf for two years, according to the Nerd, could not be very sane after being back to what could be described as normal.

Harry idly wondered what would happen if he came back to Earth and it was full moon...

What made Harry even more nervous was that Aleksandr and the other five 'Space Wolfs' were constantly calling him 'my emperor', 'my liege' and similar honorifics and had all but completely put themselves under his command, even going as far as swearing it by their lives.

Harry had felt the magic of a magical oath, which made him very nervous about the whole thing. Just like the stared from the sole male Shin'bi in what appeared to be a training group.

Harry had asked him about that and what he had meant by 'mahou'. After several tries to describe it, Harry had found out that mahou was the same as magic. And it turned out that Shinosuke, the name of the Shin'bi, was a wizard, or Mahoutsukai as the Shin'bi called it.

During the talk with Shinosuke, Harry had found out that the Shin'bi hadn't been able to use his magic as his slave collar had been modified to suppress the magic. That in turn meant that the galaxy out there knew about magic and had ways to counter it.

Now that the collar was removed, he could use his magic again and Harry had been surprised to see that it was wandless magic, mostly based around the movements of the entire body, mixing it heavily with what looked like Kung Fu from those Hong Kong movies Dudley used to like. His parents hadn't forbidden them, seeing that Hong Kong used to be the crown colony of the United Kingdom.

The bigger surprise was that Shinosuke was offering to teach him 'majutsu'. Harry had thought about it for a few moments before nodding and taking the offer. It might be interesting to see how different it was from the wizarding that he knew.

Which brought him back to Aleksandr, who didn't seem to leave his side ever since he had sworn his oath.

"Bad news," McPherson said as she entered the small mess most of the former slaves were located in." I can't get us out of this situation. We got a warship, but its not going anywhere..."

Behind her von Bismark entered the room and moved to sit down on the long table of the mess. McPherson crossed her arms over her chest and remained standing.

Harry just blinked, thankful for the distraction away from his new bodyguard and looked at McPherson.

"Why?" he wondered and asked the question most of the occupants of the room had running through their heads.

"Because only I know at least something about flying this ship," she said and closed her eyes, one of her rather meaty hands massaging the bridge of her nose." We would need a full bridge crew to get it moving. And we lack just that."

Harry swallowed. He had no illusions that the Doranians would try to look for whatever had stopped their slave transport when it didn't arrive at least two hours after the scheduled arrival. And that could mean that they would go back to being slaves. Not a future Harry looked forward to have.

Around him everyone looked at each other and Aleksandr frowned as he shot a glance towards his 'Space Wolfs'. They would fight for their Emperor...

"Uhm..." a voice piped up and everyone turned towards the Pirate Nerd, who was named Andrew of all things." There might be a way..."

"And what would that be?" von Bismark said and glared at him what made Andrew try to get smaller.

"That AI I talked about," he answered and swallowed." Its finished and I wanted the old captains answer to add it to the ships systems before activating it."

McPherson scratched her chin.

"It would control everything?" she wondered." Even life support?"

"Well..." Andrew said and swallowed again." No. Life support is still an independent system with its own controls and reactor. He would be able to control gravity, but not basic life support."

"He?"

"The AI got a male personality core."

"How fast could you activate it?" von Bismark wondered and looked at him intensely.

"I just need to get its remote drone to activate it. Because of several incompatibilities, I needed to install its core unit a remote drone. The AI could than even be disconnected from the ship and still retain its personality."

McPherson and von Bismark looked at each other.

"I think we should get it," Harry said." Its worth a try. But someone should make sure he doesn't activate it and turn himself into the captain and commands those cleaning drones or something."

Andrew swallowed again and nodded.

The older people looked at each other for a moment.

"Okay," von Bismark said after a moment and nodded." Maybe you should take care of that. I guess that you are able to keep Andrew from trying anything. I still need to talk to Elena about something."

Harry sighed and than glared at Andrew. He had been there when Harry had showed Shinosuke some magic and knew that he was dangerous without a weapon and that Aleksandr would currently follow him everywhere.

"Okay, McDuff," he said and stood up, still looking towards Andrew," lead the way."

Andrew just nodded and moved very quickly to get out of his chair and out of the door of the room, equally quickly followed by Harry and Aleksandr. The Pirate Nerd lead them down several decks and into a rather small but again very stereotypically nerdy room.

There was a single object laying on the table, looking very much like a dumbbell, through one of the spheres was smaller than the other. Andrew was making his way directly towards it, but Harry moved a little quicker and reached the table before the Nerd.

"This is it?" Harry asked and turned around to glare at the Nerd again.

Andrew nodded and yet again swallowed. Harry reached out towards the object and frowned a little. That was it? Nothing else? And that thing would be able to control this ship?

"Don't," Andrew started as Harry placed a hand on the larger spheric part of the dumbbell only to end with a rather lame 'touch it...'

The sphere lit up and a blue ray passed over Harry's head.

"Activation confirmed," the sphere said and something that looked like a pair of eyes and a speaker grill formed as a holograph in front of the sphere." Commanding officer ID locked."

Harry stared at it dumbly and watched how it floated into the air, the larger sphere on top, connected to the softly red glowing smaller one through a rather simple rod.

"Hello, Captain," the drone said and the speaker grill seemed to turn into a smile." I am Enesby, former galactic boygroup and now your AI for this ship."

Harry just groaned and face palmed.

Why always him?

--

Force Leader Mal'ak breathed in deep and looked at the large display in front of him. He had long since gotten used to the damaged display and the spider cracks running through the material covering the display. It used to be a backup system, but since the holographic systems were destroyed during the Battle of New Omelos, even through it had slowly failed in the years before, it was the only display he had.

His ship, the _Tears of Zeus_, was the fastest ship the small fleet that remained of the once great Dilgar nation and the only one where the sensory equipment was still working at more than half its original specs. And as such it had fallen to him and his ship to fly to the sole gas giant of this system to find the source of the radio signal, while the rest of the fleet sat down on the sole habitable planet of the system.

The white grayness of the short range slipstream jump faded from the display, replaced by the massive globe of the gas giant that dominated the screen.

"Report," he called out, trying to keep at least the resemblance of order on his ship, even if he knew everyone personally.

"The radio source is orbiting the planet in two point three million distance," was the report he got from his sensory technician." I'm reading a large metallic mass and about one hundred smaller metallic masses close to it."

Mal'ak nodded and breathed in deep. What could it be, he wondered.

"Can I get an optical image?"

"Its too far away," the sensory technician responded." We only got one of four telescopes and there is too little optical data to run a interferometric scan."

Mal'ak breathed in deep.

"Status of weapons and shields?" he asked, fully well knowing the status already.

"We can get the shields to twenty five percent nominal strength if we push it," was the answer." And we only got one tube with three missiles and three bolters anywhere close to combat readiness. and one bolter is spot welded in its position."

At least that bolter was facing forwards.

"Prepare a short range jump to the position of the metallic mass."

A few moment later the gray whiteness of slipstream appeared again for a few sort seconds before the display showed the planet once again, larger this time.

"Distance?"

"One thousand. I'm getting a good optical image of the object."

The screen changed slightly, still showing the planet, but another objects hung in the center of the display. It was a massive cylindric space station consisting of a pair of counter rotating cylinders inside of each other and a ring of very large radiator and/or solar energy panels sticking out from the end that was pointed towards the gas giant.

Mal'ak's mouth opened slightly as he stared at the massive station in front of him. There was data displayed next to the image of the station, a wireframe image and its dimensions. It was huge, larger than even the largest orbital habitat he had ever seen.

Slowly he closed his mouth again.

"And the other objects?"

The screen changed again, this time showing a number of randomly assembled ships of all sized and shapes. In a way this fleet resembled the Dilgar remnants that were now landing on the habitable planet.

"Two of the ships appear to be warships. Correction, they are some sort of assault carriers. I detect multiple active targeting signals and fighter launches. Currently no active shields."

Mal'ak nodded.

"Prepared passive targeting solutions and keep the shield on stand by. And than get me a com-channel."


	7. Chapter 7

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 6

--

Going from a high social standing down to a very low social standing was nothing anyone would like. The greater the difference between the two social standings, the worse things were for the person going through it. Maybe one of the worst fall from a high to a low social standing was to go from high nobility to being a slave.

Ariel of Salasia, was one of those rather few people who went that way. In her case from being a Salasian Princess to become a slave.

Her fate was not very nice to her, especially if one counted ending up in the not so tender care of the pirate captain Ani Zalak. Ani Zalak used to be a rather sadistic woman, especially when one counted how she used to create her 'pets'.

In Ariel, she had found a perfect little victim for herself. Despite or maybe because of being a princess, Ariel had a very strong will and a hard head, which made it even more fun for Ani Zalak to humiliate her. She had been very careful not to break the will of the former princess, instead making sure that she was presented with ways to free herself again and again, only to be caught by her crew sooner or later, making the punishment and the humiliation Ani Zalak would use even more fun for her.

Ariel was helpless against the pirate captain, even the valuated strength and the military training she had received, Salasians used to have a very proud military tradition and all members of the Royal Family received military training regardless of their gender, she knew that she would always be caught by her 'owner'. In a way it made her stronger, her hatred towards pirates in general and the Jurian Governor that had sold her into slavery growing by the minute.

Five years ago, the Salasian Kingdom still used to be a minor through independent power facing the Jurian Empire itself on its rimward border. The Salasians were a proud people, proud in a history that reached back into the ancient times of the galaxy, before either the Jurians or the Minbari had even thought about getting into space. Times when the Ancient Ones still roamed the galaxy before they were destroyed by the Great Old Ones in a war that devastated the galaxy and left Salasia a broken planet.

The Salasians, having been space fearing before the Great War more than 25000 years ago and the fall of the Ancient Ones, had to rely heavily on their remaining technology to rebuild their civilization and make their planet habitable again.

The long time they needed to rebuild themselves, resulted in a heavy reliance into their technology and care to rough it up to incredible degrees, in such a way that their buildings would be able to withstand heavy orbital bombardments. Everything they build was literally build for eternity.

They than grew to a small and peaceful star nation, through they maintained a rather huge military, just in case of a Second Great War and kept them well supplied and trained, resulting in pretty much the best combat units in the galaxy.

Which was the reason for their fall. Being just a mid-to-high Quantum 2 civilization, they were not able to stall the Jurian and Galaxy Police fleet that left slipstream above Salasia and pretty much told them that they were now part of the Galactic Union and their fleet and troops drafted to fight one of the many border skirmishes between the Union and the Federation, or to keep a look out if Kagato might return.

The Galactic Union placed a governor in charge of a new replacement government that removed the parliamentarian monarchy of the Salasian Kingdom from power, reducing them to a mere puppet government.

No one was lucky with the hostile takeover and a resistance formed rather quick and was just as quickly taken out by Galaxy Police, Jurian Knights and units of the Salasian military that was forced to participate.

Ariel of Salasia, as one of three Princesses of the Royal House of Salasia, happened to be one of the many leaders of the resistance, through with her social standing she was more in the position of being the figure head.

Knowing that he couldn't simply force his way to execute Ariel, the Jurian Governor played judge, leaving Ariel in the worst prisons of the Union, before eventually deciding on a fate worse than death for a proud member of the Salasian Royal Family. Slavery.

So Ariel eventually ended up in the hands of Ani Zalak, forced into shackles and doing everything that Zalak deemed to humiliate her. Or just plain tortured and taunted the Princess.

--

Captain Marcus looked at the Jurian from the corner of his eyes and breathed in deep, before his eyes returned towards the display in front of him.

That he had to follow the orders of someone like this spoiled, no good...

He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep. It would be of no use. He knew what had happened to several of his friends from the Academy when they had just looked at their Jurian 'contact officer' disapprovingly. Not long after that, they had been removed from their position and thrown into one of the Jurian political prison camps on Salasia or one of their own colonies.

"Is something wrong, Captain?" the cold voice of Makatsaki asked and he could feel the eyes of his 'contact officer' burn into him.

"Nothing... sir," over the last years he had managed to learn to keep his own voice level when talking to any Jurian.

These bastards were in some ways worse than, say... the Doranians. It was mostly because you could say how a Doranian would react. But you never knew how a Jurian would react.

"Nothing?" Makatsaki asked, his voice growing a little colder.

"I was just wondering how many ships of the Nakai we are going to meet."

"That is not of your concern, Captain."

Marcus teeth pressed against each other and he just barely kept himself from grinding them. It felt like the Jurians were getting worse with each fight they send the Royal Salasian Navy into. But he knew why they did what they did.

Again he looked at the Jurian from the corners of his eyes and the small box attached to his belt. A Long Range Transporter. Should Makatsaki ever come into a really dangerous situation that could destroy this ship, he would activate it and beam towards the next Jurian outpost or Jurian controlled planet, leaving the crew of the ship to die.

It was their way of weeding out any elements in the fleet that were not coming from any of the Academy classes after the Jurian takeover of the Salasian Kigdom. They had quickly taken over the Academy and by now it created crews and officers that were indoctrinated to follow the Jurian Emperor, not King George. Crews and officers who were little more than shock troops and cannon fodder in the Jurian plans. Skilled, but still just cannon fodder.

Truth be told, they were actually making tactical decisions that placed those fleet units still mostly loyal to the Salasian Kingdom in the worst possible situation and only luck and skill let them get out alive. But still... Half of the Task Force Marcus had commanded had been destroyed during the last years, with no replacements coming in.

'Might makes right.'

That was the rule out here.

The Kingdom of Salasia was older than the Jurian Empire. The Kingdom was said to have the best soldiers and spacers in Known Space. The Kingdom used to be a wealthy independent nation.

But the Jurians decided that the Kingdom belonged o the Empire and with it their soldiers, their spacers and their wealth.

Marcus felt a spike of pain coming from his forehead that soon disappeared. His facial expression didn't change as he slowly called up a diagnosis. Not many people knew about this little medical problem of his. It wasn't even in his own military or medical files. Something like this was considered to be a problem between him and a doctor he could trust.

For a brief moment he wondered how the Jurians would react if they knew that half of his frontal cortex was cloned tissue with a number of cognitive implants? Most likely they would try to implant slave command into the implants...

People who needed cognitive implants were considered to be AIs by the Jurians and the Minbari. And as such pretty much slaves.

Aboard this ship there was only one person who knew about the implants and knew them well enough to do something like this.

His facial expression didn't change as he found a memory that shouldn't be there. Internally he smirked a little he he remembered the false memory, looking at the face of his head engineer.

"I have found the tracer," the false memory said." I'm going to rig something that will burn it out on my command. You know our plan, try not to damage my baby too much."

Good job, he thought. Now they just need to get rid of Makatsaki and they would be off to Earth. But they had to share the info on the tracer with the others once they were back in port after this battle.

Now it was just the question how many of their group would be left then.

--

Harry massaged the bridge of his nose and sighed as he glared at the hovering form of Enesby. The AI grined at him, wiggling a pair of holographic eyebrows.

"What can I do for you, Oh Captain, My Captain?" Enesby quipped and moved to hover around Harrys head.

Behind him, Aleksandr couldn't help himself as he broke out in a wide grin, while Andrew, the Pirate Nerd, glanced at him nervously.

By now Harry was slowly coming to terms of being forced into the role of the captain of this ship by its new AI. He wondered how von Bismark or McPherson would take this happening.

"Is there any way to get someone else to be the captain?" he wondered out loud, trying to get out of this a last time after having tried some other ways to persuade the AI.

"Well..." Enesby welled and looked thoughfull." This is a pirate ship. I am pretty much a pirate AI. And as such programmed to follow pirate rules."

"And?"

"You'd have to be killed by someone else so that he would become captain instead of you."

Harry groaned. Being stabbed in the back was something that wasn't very high on his list of priorities, just a little beneath 'Being killed by Tommy Boy' and 'Being sold into slavery'.

"Sucks to be you, doesn't it?"

Harry glared at the quipping AI. He was in mind to destroy it, but than they wouldn't be able to get out of this.

"How much of the ship do you control?" he than wondered.

"Everything," Enesby said with a grin." From the artificial gravity, over the plumbing to the big engines. I could even haunt the plumbing if you'd like."

That comment cemented Harrys suspicion that Enesby would get along very well with Sirius.

"Speaking about controlling..." The AI noted and looked upwards." I think there is someone in your new quarters, captain."

"Stop calling me 'Captain'," Harry insisted rather strongly before he blinked." Quarters? I have Quarters? And someone is in them?"

Enesby grinned again and slowly hovered towards the door.

"Just follow me everyone," he noted." We could take a look if you want."

Harrys thoughts moved around how he maybe could manage to get von Bismark to be the captain as he, Aleksandr and Andrew followed the AI through the long corridors of the ship and up two decks towards the Captains quarters.

"Here we are," Enesby said after a few minutes of walking and floating through the lift tube as they stopped in front of a cabin with a pair of large blood strains left and right of the cabins airlock." The maintenance bots took care of the former guards, they just need to clean up a bit."

Harry eyed Enesby and breathed in as he reached out to open the door with a touch in the panel next to it. The airlock swung open, showing a room that could have very well been on one of the classical pirate movies from Earth.

Through the bare wall and the shackles were different. As was the nudile Salasian woman chained to the wall.

The skunk like humanoid looked up and a pair of yellow eyes locked with Harrys green ones.

"You even got your very own damsel in distress, boss."

Harry stared at the soon-to-be-freed princess-turned-slave and than massaged the bridge of his nose again.

"Bloody Hell..."

--

Jeffrey Sinclair groaned as he slowly came back into the land of the living, his head feeling as if a hundred Rangers were doing combat exercises in it.

"Wakey, wakey, boss," the voice of the stations AI pounded through the combat exercises, causing Sinclair to groan again." I wonder if I should dangle an Aspirin in front of the bed to get you out of it..."

Through all the throbbing pain in his head, Sinclair noticed that the voice came from a place closer to him than he would have expected.

"How long?" he groaned out and was suddenly hit with the smell of fresh coffee of all things.

"About six hundred years, give or take a decade..."

Sinclair slowly opened his eyes and than closing them again. groaning as the light in the med lab assaulted his optical nerves. He breathed in deep and opened his eyes again, seeing a blurry image that had so what humanoid proportions and seemed to hold something.

Slowly his vision cleaned as he breathed in deep again and slowly pulled his head up.

The image slowly became sharper, condensing into a madly grinning man of about fourty years with graying hair, dressed in one of the most hideous Hawaii shirts he had ever seen. In one hand he was holding a large mug of coffee, Sinclaur normally knew from Ivanova, while the other held a can.

"I brought fresh strong coffee," the man said with the voice of the stations AI, sounding slightly tempting.

"Jack?" Sinclair asked, his voice still creaking lightly from the after effects of stasis.

At least it had advanced so much that you didn't need days to get up from stasis. It only took hours now.

"The very same," the man said, his mad grin widening if that was even possible." You're seeing one of my remotes."

"Remotes?" Sinclair wondered out loud and pulled himself up groaning again.

The remote of Jack shrugged.

"Six hundred years are a long time," he said and nodded sagely." I had much time to think. Play around with the fabbers a little and the like."

Sinclair slowly reached for the mug of coffee and Jack smirked as he pulled it away every so slightly.

"Coffee," Sinclair said after a few moments of trying to grab the elusive mug, sounding slightly like Ivanova," now..."

Jack allowed him to grab the mug and shrugged as he sat down on the side of the bed.

"I had to ship around some of your orders," he continued." I needed to keep the station working and in good condition. So I had to build me a small army of repair drones and the like. And I build a couple of remotes like this."

Jack wiggled his eyebrows and grinned, while Sinclair emptied the mug in one go, feeling slightly better afterwards.

"Why did you wake me?"

Jack scratched his chin.

"We've been found. Purely by chance through. I doubt the radio signal is able to leave this system with that amount of interference. Its a sort of Rag Tag Fleet on the survivors of a human civilization that are on the run of someone called Cylons."

"Human civilization?" Sinclair wondered, the words more or less registering, but his mind not yet catching up to them.

"No idea about that boss. But a few of their shuttles are sitting in one of my hangars, together with one of my remotes."

He seemed to think for a moment.

"And than there is that one Dilgar scout ship that is currently floating not far from either me or the RTF. I got both of them in my sights if needed be."

That one word registered a little more and Sinclair looked up from refilling the mug of coffee.

"Dilgar?"

"Dilgar," Jack noted and slowly scuttled away from the mug and the can as the mug slowly began to flow over with coffee. "You better watch your mug through..."

Sinclair blinked and than cursed as the hot coffee flowed over the edges of the cup, his hand and than into his crotch, that was currently only covered by a thin sheet of fabric.

"Gah!"

"Oh lookie, they are ready to talk..."

--

Ariel glared towards the airlock of Zalak's quarters, and at the two humans that was standing in it as well as the flying robot/remote/whatever next to them.

"Bloody Hell," she head one of them say in Earthern English.

Was this another of Zalak's games with her? Had she found out that her people had looked at the planet Earth for millenia since the Great War and that everyone of the Royal Family spoke their languages. Had she abducted one or two humans?

The smaller of the duo was pretty much staring at her. He was a little on the small side, a wild shock of hair surrounding his head as if he had grabbed a free power line. His body was covered in dirt and grime of what appeared to be years and his clothes had seen better days. She could tell that there used to be a slave collar around his neck, the wounds of electrical burns on his neck plainly visible.

The features that stood out most however were the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the heavily scarred and nearly skeletal hand.

The other was large and easily outweighed the largest of Zalak's pirates and looked to be older than the other guy. He was also extremely hairy through not as much as much that it could be considered to be fur. The only thing he wore was what looked like a sheet and like the smaller guy he was in desperate need of a shower, through he was mostly covered in dried blood.

The remote was looking rather plain, hovering in the air and displaying a holographic face.

"Is this one of those times what Zalak considers fun?" she asked out loud, speaking English and glaring at both of the humans.

"Uhm..." the smaller guy said and slowly moved closer to her." I guess the former captain is dead."

Ariel snorted.

"I believe that if I see her rotting corpse."

"That can be arranged," the remote noted dryly." One of the maintenance bot is just on its way to move her corpse to the converter."

The younger guy had reached her by now, keeping his eyes steadily above her chest level, very obviously trying not to stare at her not-covered-by-clothing body, through she knew that he had noted the scars that were plainly visible through her fur here and there.

Ariel continued to glare at him, while noting that the larger guy seemed to be ready to help the younger guy should the need arise. She had seen quite her share of bodyguards over time and this guy was very much acting like one.

"I'm Harry by the way," the younger guy said and slowly opened the shackles around her wrists, through she wondered how that was possible without the keys.

"Harry," she noted dryly at him and pulled her arms towards her body before stretching them a few times and massaging her wrists." Ariel, Princess of Salasia."

Harry stared at her in shock for a moment, before massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Just my luck," he muttered." A bloody Princess... Did I taunt Murphy lately?"

Ariel glared at him, still ready to defend herself should this once again be one of Zalak's jokes.

Her head whirled around at hearing a grinding sound from the door, staring at it. A maintenance drone was moving into the room, dragging a bloody corpse with it, leaving a very visible bloodstain on the floor.

"Look," Harry said after a moment, trying his best to ignore the corpse as Ariel walked towards it." I used to be a Doranian slave from the planet Earth until two hours ago after a successful takeover of a slave shuttle and a fight with pirates without even getting off a shot as his guys took them out."

Harry pointed at the large man, while Ariel looked at the corpse. The clothing of it and the look of surprise in the bloody, but still intact half of its face, made her realize that it was Zalak to her feet. Than her eyes fell onto an item that would make sure that she would remain free even if this was a very elaborate joke.

"And now I find myself being the bloody captain of a bloody pirate ship with a bloody insane AI. I..."

Before Harry could finish, Ariel had pulled the large hand gun that used to belong to Zalak from the quick draw holster and pointed it into Harrys face. He blinked, but that was just about everything he did. Obviously he didn't know that he was staring right down the projector opening of the 'Galaxies most Powerful Handgun', as he would have soiled his pants very fast if he did.

Meaning that he could indeed be from Earth, as pretty much everyone in the galaxy knew how the MTK-950 looked like.

"The truth," she said and glared at Harry, not without glancing over to the remote and the large guy for a moment.

The remote looked very nervous, mostly at the gun, while the large guy looked read to jump her, despite the gun in her hands.

Harry made a hand motion that told the large guy to stop, before he even moved, before looking into her eyes.

"I am telling the truth."

Either Harry had balls of steel or he was an idiot of ignoring that the MASER pulse from her gun would flash fry him if it hit. And it would hit. Even if it hadn't been a MTK-950, he could be very dead from being shot by a gun pointed directly into his face, even if it was a slugthrower.

"You are from Earth," she said.

"Yes."

"You were taken by the Doranians..."

"Yes."

"How?"

Harry breathed in deep and closed his eyes and Ariel couldn't help admire him at last slightly. It really took much to keep as calm as he was.

"They invaded Earth three yeas ago," he said." Bombarded every major city and army base before moving in."

Ariel grit her teeth. Earth had been invaded by that lowlife of the galaxy? And the Jurians hadn't stepped in? For being the supposed 'guardians' of the planet, they seemed to give a damn about the planet. It made her hate grow. Her people knew the truth about the planet that was now called Earth by its inhabitants.

It used to be the homeworld of the Ancient Ones before the Great War and the Salasians had kept an eye on the developments of their heirs, ready to step in once they were ready, as a thank you for the help their ancestors received from the Ancient Ones.

One more point to her personal list of 'Why I hate Jurai'.

She slowly let the gun drop, still ready to use it if she had to.

"You are pretty calm about having a gun pointed at your face," she noted and smiled slightly at Harry.

"Are you kidding? I may have faced of with a troll, a basilisk and a dragon, but that is a bloody gun. I was ready to crap my pants."


	8. Chapter 8

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 7

--

"Visual contact confirmed, _Galactica_," came the voice of Hot Dog over wireless.

Recently promoted Admiral William Adama looked at the DRADIS display, as if he could force it to give him more details than general size, mass, velocity and position of the unknown ship that had jumped close to them and the massive anchorage.

Of course the fleet had moved out of the way of the presumed weapons range of the anchorage, but they were still close enough to get the three Raptors back to them before jumping out if needed.

"Can you make out details?" Tigh asked next to him looking at the same DRADIS display.

"Not much at the moment," Hot Dog noted." Doesn't look Cylon through."

"We don't know if the Cylons might have ships other than Basestars and Resurrection ships."

"It would have launched either nukes or Raiders if it was a Cylon ship," Adama noted.

His glance went over towards the contact that was _Pegasus_. The Mercury class Battlestar was keeping between the unknown anchorage and the fleet, while _Galactica_ faced the unknown ship.

Both ships had launched their Vipers and Raptors, ready to attack if the unknown ship made any hostile movements.

"I can make out details now," Hot Dog said after a few moments." Frack, it looks like it has recently seen battle and one or two nukes."

"What?" Tigh asked and looked at Adama, who still continued to look at the display, scratching his chin.

"The hull armor is blackened in multiple places," Hot Dog answered." Hades, I can't even make out what color that ship used to be."

"Do a closer pass and try not to make any movements that might be considered hostile."

"Roger, _Galactica_."

Several moments passed where everyone could hear Hot Dogs light breathing as the last few dozen kilometers were crossed by the Viper. For a moment the contacts of the Viper seemed to merge with the unknown ship as the Viper made a pass.

"Gods," Hot Dog called out." That ship looks like it has meet the wrong end of more than one nuke."

Adama looked over towards Tigh, and for a moment he remembered how a Basestar had destroyed _Columbia_ and the nuke that his his ship not so much time ago. He could imagine the damages the ship might have taken.

"I don't think it can be much of a threat anymore," Hot Dog continued." I don't see any form of anti-air weapons and most of its weapon turrets are destroyed. It looks more like a heap of scrap than a warship."

"Admiral," the voice of the communication officer of the watch cut in," I'm getting a communication attempt from the unknown ship."

Adama looked back on the display and than at the office and Tigh.

"Put it on the speakers," he said and than looked down to the microphone he held.

A slightly rumbling voice said something in an obviously alien language, but the only words Adama could understand were 'Tears of Zeus'.

Tears of Zeus? Was that the name of that ship? Why was a possible alien naming their ship after a Koboloan god? Maybe they weren't alien, but members of the thirteenth tribe?

Adama eyes Tigh for a moment, before his eyes returned towards the display. If this were people from the thirteenth colony, he didn't want to make any hostile looking movement or comment.

But what if it was a Cylon trap after all?

"This is Admiral William Adama of the Battlestar _Galactica_," he said." We did not understand you."

The voice was silent for a moment and as it spoke again, Adama could hear surprise in it, aside from being able to understand it at all.

"You are speaking our language?" the voice asked with what sounded like a heavy Gemenon accent. "But you don't understand Intercosmo?"

Adama let the microphone drop for a moment, leaning heavily on the plot trying to think for a moment. Maybe the ship really belonged to the thirteenth tribe.

"I am speaking my own language," he said." Everyone in the Twelve Colonies spoke this language."

"Interesting," the voice said." What are your intentions in this system?"

Adama breathed in deep. Should he tell the other one that they intended to colonize the planet and that they misjumped? If this was a member of the thirteenth tribe, they might not need to do that.

"We are on our way to the Thirteenth Colony," he said and breathed in again." Earth."

Looking towards several of the crew members around, he could see than several of them were crossing their fingers and that one or two were muttering prayers.

"I don't know of a planet with that name," the voice admitted.

"Maybe you know it by another name?" Adama wondered.

The Twelve Colonies used to have other names in ancient times after all.

"Or maybe I could help," another rather cheerful sounding voice suddenly cut into the connection." Assuming you'd like my help of course."

Adamas head whipped towards the communication officer.

"It comes from the anchorage!"

"I'd even like to invite everyone over. Galactica send a nice squad of people already, maybe you'd like to do the same, Force Leader Mal'ak?"

The voice stopped for a moment.

"Any relation to a certain Sith Lord?"

--

"What?"

Joachim von Bismark stared at Harry, making him slightly uncomfortable. Aleksandr was showing a slight grin on his face, while the newly discovered Ariel was sitting on a chair, obviously not in the slightest bothered about the fact that the gun belt securing her very large gun was her only clothing at the moment. Harry way glad that the fur actually covered most of her body.

"It's not like I wanted to be captain," Harry answered after a moment before glaring at Enesby who displayed a very large grin.

Currently only those who more or less the leaders of the small band of former slaves were sitting in the small mess hall behind the bridge, including Shinosuke and Haruka, while the others were taking care of the former slaves that had been broken or were still injured.

"I just touched Enesby before Andrew could do it."

"And the touch felt soooo goood," Enesby suddenly piped up and gave of a sound that sounded very much like a sigh.

Harry glared at Enesby, while most in the rooms snickered.

"How could I have know that it would activate him and acknowledge me as the new captain?"

"Actually..." Enesby noted and hovered closer to Harry and von Bismark," I have been online since our large friend here took out the bridge crew."

As he said that a green holographic crystal popped into existence above Alexanders head for a few moment.

"What?" came from just about everyone, the loudest being Andrew.

Enesby eyed his creator for a moment.

"Oh come on, you have designed me so that I'd take over the ship once the bridge crew was removed."

Than he turned to McPherson.

"And I let you snoop through the systems because I knew that you couldn't do much about me or even find me."

Harry turned to glare at Enesby again.

"Than why am I the captain now? I don't think that it was me touching you..."

Enesby grinned even wider.

"Well, besides the touch feeling good," he said with wriggling eyebrows and got a growl from Harry who looked about ready to break him in half and floated a little higher." You're the best for the job."

Again he was meet with a loud what coming from just about everyone.

"Why?"

Enesby looked a little unsure how to explain it.

"Ensign McPherson might be the only actual Earth Force officer here," he said and looked at the older woman," but her file is less than spectacular. You could have been Commander by the time this ship fell into the hands of the Doranians, if it wasn't for repeated insubordination..."

"Than we have Herrn von Bismark," he continued and turned towards the German," No offense, but I don't really trust you, especially because the EA historical files don't have you in it. And since you were abducted in the early 1930s, you could be a member of the NSDAP for all I know."

"I am not," von Bismark said and glared at him." I don't even like the way Hitler manages his people. And what does that have to do with anything?"

"Remind me to show you the historical files about Germany after 1932."

Enesby turned to the pair of Shin'bi.

"Liksewise, you two are unknowns. Hell there aren't many informations available about your people at all, besides being very sneaky and stealthy warriors.

"Big Guy?" he wondered for a moment and again the green crystal popped up over the 'Were Marines' head." No offense, but you're insane..."

Aleksandr just showed a large grin and shrugged his shoulders. From what Harry had gathered over the last hour the man was essentially rather sociable, had a strange sense of humor and was insane...

"And the Princess," he said and looked at her for a few moments." I got this feeling in my circuits that you might have done something very dumb and over reacting. Mainly because of your recent years..."

Harry folded his arms and glared at Enesby.

"You could say the same about me," he said.

"Not really," Enesby noted and grinned a grin Harry didn't like. It looked like he knew something he wasn't ready to tell.

"You are the hero type," he said." Through most of the time not really willingly. You just seem to be the victim of a strange ancient Chinese Curse."

"May you live in interesting times," Harry deadpanned.

"Exactly. I trust you that you won't be misusing the command over this ship but rather try to do a good job at it, even if you don't like it. And you'd be likely to try and get advice from those who are willing to give it to you."

Harry frowned a little.

"And why do you think I am like that?" he wondered." For all everyone here knows I could be the opposite."

Enesby's grin got wider. As it was a holographic projection it was very possible for him.

"Mainly because of this..."

Seven holographic books suddenly hovered in front of Harry's face and he had to cross his eyes to read the titles and see the pictures on them.

He felt his jaw drop as he read the title of the first book.

"Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone..." he read out loud and quickly scanned the titles of the other books.

Than he stared at Enesby who grinned even wider.

Harry abruptly turned around and stalked towards the door of the mess hall.

"Screw this," he called out and for a moment glared back at the others." I'm going to take a long hot shower in my supposed quarters. I suggest the rest of you do the same. And Enesby, lay course towards that Tachyon signal."

He left the mess hall and was followed by a number of blank stared.

"He took that better than I imagined..."

--

King William V of Great Britain and the United Kingdom stood on the balcony of the large quarters he had in the Griffindor tower of Hogwarts and looked out onto the great lake beneath.

Actually it wasn't really a lake, but rather a form of fjord that cut through the Highlands of Scotland and only a hundred meter passage with nearly vertical walls lead into what the Wizards called a lake. He for one was glad that it wasn't a lake, but a fjord as it made hiding what was left of the Royal Navy so much easier.

He looked down onto the improvised docks of the equally improvised harbor, wondering if any of these ships would ever be used.

_Ark Royal_ had survived First Impact and with her had her escort, consisting of _Liverpool_, _Monmouth_, _Montrose_ and _Trafalgar_. _Trafalgar_ was also one of four submarines that had made it. She, _Tireless_, _Victorious_ and _Vigilant_. The two later were large Boomers, each carrying sixteen Tridents and had been lucky to be able to launch with emergency crews as HMNB Clyde was hit by a Doranian kinetic strike.

Not that they had been in any shape for launching their missiles with any chance to hit the Doranian ships.

He watched as _Tireless_ moved away from its improvised dock to leave the security of Hogwarts 'lake', ready to dive before leaving towards what remained of the United States. She would take a dive under the Northpole to get to Camano Island close to Seattle, where what remained of the United States Government was hiding their own few left over subs, three Los Angeles and one Ohio.

Nuclear submarines where the only way of communication between 'Operation Atlantis' and other pockets of resistence, like the United States and Kamchatka.

For a moment, he wondered what his grandmother would have done, or his father for that matter. Well, his grandmother wouldn't have been amused...

"Your Majesty?" he heard a voice behind him and slowly turned around.

He smiled a little as he looked at Professor Hawking and his relatively new assistant Luna Lovegood, a rather unorthodox witch. Sometimes it was scary how well she worked with the Professor and they gave each other ideas. The trio of Lovegood, Hawking and Andreyasn had developed the teraport nearly on their own.

"Professor Hawking, Ms. Lovegood," he greeted them and nodded slightly.

He tried to ignore the sowhat dreamy and glazed over look of Luna, knowing that a keen mind hid behind them.

"What can I do for you."

"Ms. Lovegood had a very interesting idea, your majesty," the Professor said.

By now it was normal to see him speak, even through his mouth didn't move. Magic was surprising sometimes. While it couldn't fully heal him, it was at least able to make him able to carry a normal conversation without the need of his computer.

William looked at Luna with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, Ms. Lovegood?"

She continued to smile dreamily and fiddled with that butterbeer cork necklace of hers.

"The submarines are able to keep air inside, isn't it?" she asked in her normal sing song voice.

"Yes, they do."

"Maybe we could put a teraport device into one of them and apparate it into space to fight the alien ships there?"

William blinked and looked back out onto the lake, where _Tireless_ was diving. For a moment he wondered how the merpeople on the lake were taking the subs and the ships. Than his mind moved to the possibilities. He looked back at the Professor and his assistant.

"Would it even be possible to teraport something from the sea into space?" he wondered.

"We don't know," the professor admitted." We would have to do some test as soon as we can build the teraport."

William nodded and scratched his chin. A teraport into space wouldn't make a sub into a spaceship. It would be little more than a piece of dead and cooling metal once it got into space. Even if it was a boomer and launched its missiles at a Doranian ship a close range, it could be only done so many times and even than it was unlikely that it would really change anything for the better if they managed to destroy the ship.

"A teraport doesn't make a starship," he than told his thoughts.

"But we could make it move like a broom," Luna noted and grinned a little as a flying red Mini passed the window.

Yes, the Weasly's had managed to build a real flying car that didn't spontaneously develop life. It could be the answer to the movement problems of the sub, but could whatever the Weasly's had done be done to a sub?

"It would still make is valuable to an attack," he said." We don't have shields."

"The Americans are nearly finished reverse engineering the shield from the Vree ship that crashed at Roswell," the Professor noted." If we gave them the teraport and the flying enchantment, we might be able to get their shield."

William hmmed and once again turned around to the window, watching from up hight how the dark shape of _Tireless_ moved towards the cliffs that made the fjord look like a lake.

He would have to give his okay to modify a submarine. He was the Government at the moment, much like the absolutist kings of the past. He had a number of advisors, but that didn't make it any easier.

"I will have to think about it," he said and his eyes followed _Tireless_ on its way into the ocean.

--

Kevyn grinned a little at the large number of warning signs on the large oak door to his large laboratory. The not so little Mad Scientist in him was very, **very** satisfied that his lab used to be a Dungeon, through he still needed some more space. Maybe get a few elves to expand the lab.

As he pressed down the door handle and opened the door, only to nearly stutter as he looked into the smiling faces of Fred and George Weasley. He was close to following common sense, slamming the door shut and run away screaming, but the Mad Scientist in him was very curious about what the Weasleys had now.

Last time he had seen them grin like that, they had asked him if he could help them work out a way to create steel tipped .303 inch bullets, complete with magical runes for enlargement and contact detonation. It had needed some weeks and three detonations to build a machine that could create just those bullets for Weasley Wizarding Weapons.

Actually by now they were producing several calibers of their Weasley Special munitions, with a side array of contact effects.

Kevyn thought that all Weasleys, save for Percy, Ron and Molly, were more than facinated by modern technology and had taken to merging magic with technology like a fish to the water. Through Kevyn had to say that he had needed a few weeks to break off Arthurs tendency to try and take everything apart. He had barely restrained him from taking apart that one of the CRAYs he had managed to salvage from Oxford.

So he opened the door wide, and made sure that it would not close. Just in case he had to bolt anyway.

"Kevyn!" both Weasleys called out in perfect unison, spotting the exactly same grins on their faces.

They were creepy when they did something like that.

Kevyn breathed in deep, but he could feel the cold sweat slowly coming out on his bald head.

"What can I do for you?" he wondered.

Their grins widened and once again Kevyn had the feeling that they were able to smell fear.

"Just a little..."

"... project of ours. We found..."

"... some plans in some of the..."

"... books we read."

The way their completed each other sentences was another thing that was so freaking creepy about them. And Kevyn knew that they knew that everyone was creeped out. No wonder they did it so often.

"Plans?" Kevyn asked and slowly moved closer.

Fred, or was if George, produced a plastic tube and screwed off the top and George, or was it Fred, pulled out a set of rolled up sheets of paper. The kind of paper used in for construction diagrams.

"Its and old design of a..."

George placed the sheets on the large working table, swishing away some minor components for the Terraport prototype away, but thankfully not damaging them. Than he rolled out the sheets.

"... giant tank."

Kevyn blinked. Giant tank? He swallowed.

'Please,' he thought and his eyes briefly looked upwards.' Whatever god hears me. Not an OGRE.'

"A very old design."

"Its called 'Ratte'."

"Oh hell..." Kevyn said and closed his eyes, bringing his hand up to gently massage the bridge of his nose.

Of course he had heard of the 'P1000 Ratte'. What self respecting not-so-mad scientist hadn't? He even used to have a few plans drawn up for...

His thoughts came to a screetching halt.

"Wait a minute," he explained and looked at the diagrams." Those are my plans."

Kevyn looked over them. Once when he had been bored, he had drawn up a few designs for an improved, modern day Ratte. One that included a nuclear reactor for power. Cobham Armor and, to top the overkill. A pair of 14 inch guns. And these plans, at least the pair on top, even had his signature.

"They are?" but asked at the same time, smiling like they couldn't hurt a fly.

Okay, they wouldn't hurt a fly, but prank it...

"Where did you find them?"

"Somewhere in your stuff..." George said and both shrugged.

Again Kevyn brought his hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. Than he pulled off the first pair of plans, to reveal another set of plans beneath, these ones having the signs of being designed by the Weasleys. He was sure about that because they were much more strained with various fluids he didn't want to identify, but was sure that they were the ingredients for a prank or some new and very unusual weapons.

Kevyn looked over the set of plans, noting a number of improvements. Sure enough it still had a pair of 14 inch main guns, with autoloaders, a single 120 mm smoothbore, with autoloader and four dual Phalanx CIWS gattlings. The VLS missiles in the rear of the design was new however.

The next page showed a fusion reactor as power source, four modified drive trains and the internal command center of the tank.

Kevyn blinked. If these figures where correct, the Twins planned only a three men crew. Not surprising with the autoloaders. And was that a CRAY as main computer core?

He leaved through the remaining pages, showing some detail plans, until he came to the last page that listed all enchantments they planned for the design.

Again he blinked. They were going to try a featherweight charm on it? They wanted to fly that thing?!

He looked up and slowly turned around.

"Please tell me you don't plan to build this monster..." he said and even if the Weasleys didn't see his eyes, they were pleading.

The twins suddenly looked very nervous.

"Welllll..." came from George," We don't plan it anymore."

Kevyn slowly placed his hands on his head, feeling the headache coming.

"We're already finished with the drive trains, the reactor assembly, the enchanted ammo dumps and the control center."

Kevyn shuddered. He felt very suddenly very sorry for the Doranians and/or Voldemort.


	9. Chapter 9

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 8

--

Sinclair cursed silently. His head felt like Drazi were fighting over green versus purple in it. And than was his crotch, still hurting from the very hot coffee being poured into it, so he was walking slightly bowlegged.

He was following one of Jack's remotes through the corridors of Babylon 4 towards the main reception lobby of the station, where he would meet with the representatives of the two parties that had found the station.

They passed a line of seven yellow Scuzzer robots, that where singing 'Hey ho, hey ho, off to work we go' of all things.

"What the hell..." Sinclair said and nearly dropped the mug of coffee that he held in his hand.

"Don't mind them," Jack noted and grinned a little." Nearly all of them have developed quips over the last few hundred years."

Sinclair stared at Jack for a moment and than shook his head tiredly. He may have slept about six hundred years, but it was defiantly to early to deal with something like this. He turned back to the corridor and stared it down, seeing something in red passing it for a brief moment.

He didn't really want to deal with this now. He wanted to wake up sowhat normally, not already deal with a diplomatic problem already. Hell, he felt like he hadn't eaten anything in 600 years, and technically that was true. He felt like he could eat a horse.

For a moment what Jack had told him about the pair of contacts surfaced. One party were Dilgar, meaning that the galaxy they had landed in was close to home. The ship they had arrived in however was worse to wear and Jack had noted that it would be more useful as scrapmetal.

The other party looked and behaved like humans, but they were speaking a language that was very close to that of the Dilgar, which in turn was very close to ancient greek as far as Jack could tell. A pair of large ships, each just a little smaller than an Omega, but lacking any rotating sections, seemed to defend a small fleet of ships that appeared to be a cross section of civilian vessels.

They had been there for about an hour before the Dilgar had appeared and Jack had used the time to analyze as much of their radio communication as possible. These humans, or humanoids for the lack of a better term were coming from a place called the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, where ever that was.

More important was what he had pried from the Colonial Marines after they had landed and turned one of his remotes into swiss cheese after he had admitted that he was an AI, what the Colonials called Cylons. Apparently they had build a line of intelligent robots that had then switched to try and exterminate them, nearly succeeding.

To Sinclair it sounded like the plot of an old 20th century TV serial.

"Here we are," Jack noted and they entered a large lobby that looked out of place on the station.

It was a far cry from the terminal Sinclair remembered. Gone was the feeling of a, well, terminal, replaced by what looked like the lobby of a very expansive hotel back on Earth. What was it called? Burgej Al Arab?

Several copies of Jack were manning the various counters that lead to the single gates and hangars of the station, while a group of human or human looking people were standing or standing around a tall palm and the couches surrounding it. Another copy of Jack and a pair of very mean looking chrome glittering bipedal robots with equally mean looking big guns left and right of the torso where standing with them.

"Hi Jack," the copy of Jack said and waved over to them.

"Hi Jack," Sinclair's copy of Jack answered and waved back.

Sinclair felt like his headache was only going to get worse. The stares he got from the humans was similar and the moment he realized that he was currently stuck looking like a Minbari. Sometime he had to try and change back...

"Alien," one of them muttered as Sinclair walked over, still nursing his coffee.

For a moment Sinclair thought the man's voice had a hall effect and looked at Jack. Well one of the Jack's anyway.

"I automatically translating," Jack noted with a grin." I hope you're not misunderstanding each other anyway..."

Both of the Jacks than turned towards two different Gates where another pair of Jacks were entering the lobby, each having a group of people in tow.

One was trailed by a group of Dilgar in very ratty clothing and Sinclair thought that he could smell them from where he was standing.

Another group of five humans or humanoids where following the second Jack and were directly walking towards the group of Colonial Marines.

Sinclair breathed in deep and downed the rest of his coffee before placing the mug on a nearby table. Than he walked over to where the two groups where meeting under the large palm tree, nearly stumbling over one of the small yellow bug like DRDs.

What a great way to make a first impression, even through the Dilgar were looking at him with fear, where the humans or humanoids looked curious, amused or just freaked out. He idly noted that their weapons were more directly pointed at the now four Jacks and the pair of large robots.

"I am Jeffrey Sinclair," he said after a moment, desperately trying to forget the throbbing headache." The... caretaker of this station."

"A strange name for a Minbari," one of the Dilgar, Sinclair assumed he was the leader, said.

"I'm not really a Minbari," he answered." Nor was this station build by the Minbari."

The assumed leader of the human group eyes the Dilgar for a moment.

"Force Leader Mal'ak," the Dilgar said and breathed in." Commander of the _Tears of Zeus_."

Sinclair nodded his head, forcing down a wincing as his headache got worse for a moment and than looked towards the other group.

An elder man and a younger man, both spectacled, had stepped forward. The man was wearing a dark uniform that reminded him of an Earth Force uniform, while the man was dressed in a suit.

"I am President Gaius Baltar of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol," the man introduced himself and Sinclair didn't really know how to react to it.

A President, he wondered. Through if they really where all that was left of their civilization...

"Admiral William Adama of the Battlestar _Galactica_," he than continued and pointed at the elder man.

Interesting to see that the Admiral didn't seem to like the President.

"Mister President, Admiral," Sinclair acknowledged and was about to say something else as he was interrupted.

"Anyone want cake?" Another Jack said as he entered the lobby, balancing a large plate on his hand.

"THE CAKE IS A LIE!" another Jack screamed and jumped up, only to be dragged away kicking and screaming by another pair of Jacks.

Sinclair once again felt how his headache got worse. He was sure that something would happen that would complicate matters even more.

--

Outside of Babylon 4 a bubble of space twisted and turned for brief moments before a single blue glowing point appeared from nowhere, before rapidly expanding to a large blue glowing circle, through the edges were rainbow colored.

The circle moved slightly and like a giant three dimensional printer it seemed to 'print' into space. What it printed was a giant ship that looked like someone had taken an egg, pressed it flat and than halved it. Painted in red and yellow colors the large vessel was taller than Babylon 4 was long.

Accompanying it were are large number of smaller flat box shaped ships that surrounded the ship like a shell.

The _Pride of Ferrol_ had arrived.

--

Harry breathed in deep as he looked into the mirror in front of him. He felt better than he had done in the last three years. Sometimes a long hot shower really helped. Especially if you had your last bath three years ago.

The shower had actually lasted about an hour, with the first ten minutes needed to bang his head repeatedly against the wall of the showering stall, while the last half an hour was needed to just stand in the hot water and let it run down his body.

He looked into the mirror. The face that looked back at him wasn't really that of someone who was just eighteen. If he hadn't known the person in the mirror, he would have guessed the reflection to be in his early to mid twenties.

If he ever had any baby fat left, it had burned away during the years of slavery, while the hard work and the strangely filling food had made him muscular and rather fetching to the eye. At least to his own eye.

His hair hadn't grown much and he blamed his magic about keeping it at that length and while dirt, grime and sweat had kept it down in the recent years, now it was back to its usual chaotic self. At least it was covering the scar on his forehead a little better now.

He breathed in again and shrugged his shoulders a little uncomfortable, picking at the shoulder of the clean shirt he was wearing.

"Where did you get this clothes?" he idly wondered into the room to see if Enesby was hearing him.

"Appearance is important in the galaxy," Enesby actually answered." The former captain had a clothes and jewelry fabber installed."

"Ahh..."

Harry was not about to ask why especially Enesby had chosen to hand him a officers uniform of the British Royal Navy instead of anything else he would have preffered. He was glad to wear clean clothes at all.

"It's even a low profile armor," Enesby noted idly and continued at Harry's 'Huh?'." Think of it as a form of dragon hide armor mixed with a kevlar vest. It can survive most of the stuff thrown at it and keep you safe."

"Ahhh..." Harry said again and than reached down to grab the glasses that had been provided by Enesby." I guess glasses count as jewelry?"

"Pretty much."

Harry nodded to himself and placed his brand new glasses on his nose. It was a far cry from the patched up, broken and damaged glasses he used to wear.

"And they also got a few additional systems integrated," Enesby noted again." Like a tactical overlay, IR, UV, radar and x-ray functions. Very close to omninoculars."

Harry blinked and eyed Enesby.

"That is part of 'jewelry'?" he wondered out loud.

Enesby snorted.

"I know of one instance where a Jurian noble hid a gram of antimatter in his jewelry," he said in a deadpan voice." Lets just say that it was not very healthy. Neither to him or everyone in a kilometer around him..."

Harry snorted. Not healthy indeed...

Than he shrugged. The rimless glasses looked very good. For a moment, he wondered how Enesby knew those things about the wizarding world, but than remembered those books.

"You know that I'm going to read those books soon..."

"I figured as much."

He looked into the mirror a few more moments and sighed. Than he looked towards the door that lead to his supposed cabin.

"Could you please take care of the previous owners stuff?" he wondered." Space them or something. I just want a normal room, okay?"

"No problem, boss," Enesby answered." Any wishes?"

"Nothing more than a normal room. A normal bed, a normal dresser, a normal desk and chair. Nothing of the stuff the previous owner liked."

Enesby chuckled a little.

"No problem. You might want to get to the bridge. I think you'd like to place blame... I mean jobs for the others..."

Harry rolled his eyes and slowly left the bathroom of his new cabin and quickly crossed the cabin to get out into the corridor. The bloodstains on the walls were gone as were any signs of a battle along the way towards the bridge.

A few minutes of walking later he reached the bridge and entered. Von Bismark, McPherson, Aleksandr, Shinosuke and Haruta were already there and stood around, looking at each other more or less comfortable.

Harry looked around. The pair of Shin'bi were wearing pretty much the same they had worn before, safe for being clean. Just like everyone had followed his suggestion to clean themselves up.

McPherson was wearing a gray uniform, obviously a clean version of the damaged uniform she had worn before. She looked rather at home in it.

Aleksandr was wearing something that looked like a medieval knight, not unlike some of the oldest suits of armor he had seen in Hogwarts. They were more chain mail than sheet metal. And over it was something that looked like the robe of a monk, through with various viking symbols, an Aquila and skulls all over it, mostly ornamental from the look of it.

Lately von Bismark was wearing a blue uniform, he looked rather uncomfortable in.

Harry walked closer.

"What is that uniform?" he wondered.

"The Uniform of a Korvettenkapitän of the Kaiserliche Marine..." von Bismark said and frowned." I don't know what the ships brain had in mind about it."

Harry frowned and looked toward the Maccara of the floating ships AI after looking at his own shoulder.

"What rank did you give me?" he wondered.

Enesby grinned and hovered over to him.

"The rank of a Captain of course," the AI noted." Complete with all the legal red tape. Congratulations on your new ship."

Harry sighed and slowly sat down on the seat that was closest to him, which coincidently happened to be the seat of the ships commander. He gently massaged his forehead. He just knew that he would get a headache from trying to argue with Enesby.

"And here comes the Princess," Enesby noted and Harry looked up and towards the entrance of the bridge.

Seeing Ariel entering made him wonder if it was too late to take a cold shower. The orange-black outfit she wore left little to the imagination and the large belt with her new gun was adding to that picture. Harry just knew that he was blushing not unlike Ron as Ariel smiled at him for a moment before adding a wink.

Harry swallowed as Ariel moved closer and stood up next to the others, incidentally placing herself in a way that Harry had a full view of all her glory.

She eyed Enesby for a moment.

"Where did you get this uniform?" she asked the AI.

Enesby seemed to shrug.

"The previous captain somehow got her hands on a whole crate of these uniforms some years ago. She wanted to modify it for herself, but since it is pretty much impossible, she forgot them in the cargo hold."

Ariel nodded and Harry couldn't help himself.

"That is a uniform?" he wondered out loud.

"Its a multipurpose combat skinsuit," she said with a chuckle." It able to interface with any Salasian control systems and has twenty times the protection value than any low profile armor. It actually rates as medium power assisted armor with most other races."

Harry nodded sowhat idly and breathed in deep. Somehow he knew that she would continue to wear this 'multipurpose combat skin suit', just like he knew that he would enjoy the view...

"Okay," von Bismark cut into Harry's thoughts, just as a goofy grin was forming on his face." I think we should talk about who is going to be what. Especially since you are the Kapitän, Harry."

Harry shook his head clear. His first glance went towards McPherson.

"You are going to be the pilot, I guess," he said." About anyone else I don't have any idea."

Harry's eyes once again were drawn towards Ariel as she scratched her chin.

"I am trained as tactical officer," she said after a moment." So I will take that position."

Harry just nodded and closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to look at the Salasian woman.

"Okay," he said.

"By the way," Enesby noted." We're going to reach the source of the Tachyon signal a little earlier than I thought. Just about half an hour more until we're there."


	10. Chapter 10

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 9

--

Sinclair breathed in deep as he glared at the Jack that had brought cake of all things. He thought that it broke the tension sowhat, but with the arrival of the third massive ship at Babylon 4, it was not very much.

The massive ship had appeared from something like giant bubble, if it could be called that, and had been dropped back in normal space with several large ships, some were the size of Nova's if Jack's data overlay was correct. Sinclair had to say that the large flat boxlike structures of these vessels looked deadly, through he doubted that they had much armor.

Jack had talked with the large ship it seemed and gotten a few informations, through Sinclair didn't know if it was a good idea to let this 'insane' AI do the talking. On the other hand Sinclair wasn't in any shape to do much talking. Even here with the Dilgar and the Colonians, he still had to fight down his headache that seemed to get worse rather than better.

At least they had a name to go with the large ship _Pride of Ferrol_, and a name for the aliens that had build it, Ferrons. And than there was something strange Jack had pointed out to Sinclair, the Colonials and the Dilgar. The language the Ferrons were speaking appeared to be a dialect of the language both Dilgar and Colonials were speaking.

To quote a Jack that had appeared among them, wearing a ridiculous Sherlock Holmes outfit, a mystery was afoot.

Right now a Ferron shuttle had docked with Babylon 4 and they were waiting for the mysterious Ferrons.

"Nag Mac Feegle!" came from one of the Jacks that manned one of the counters, pointing into the direction of the Ferrons that were entering the rebuild large atrium of Babylon 4.

"Naaa," came from another Jack." They are too large, to clean and don't smell like alcohol."

Sinclair had stopped to glare at one of the about two dozen Jacks that by now populated the atrium additionally to him, the Colonials and the Dilgar.

He eyed the Colonials for a moment, nursing his fifth mug of coffee in the last two hours he had been awake after several centuries of cold sleep. They seemed to twitch at every Jack that entered and stared at any offending Jack that made a comment of any kind. And Baltar had the tendency to zone out and speak with himself.

The Dilgar on the other hand looked very much like beggers and seemed to want to slick away at every apparent attention that was directed at them.

After a moment he glanced at the Ferrons and did raise an eyebrow. Of course he had read a couple of Discworld novels, including 'Wee Free Men' and knew how Nag Mac Feegle looked like and he had to say that it was rather apt. There were more differences between his mental image of the 'Wee Free Men' and the Ferrons through.

Sure the Ferrons were blueskinned humanoids with red hair, but they were taller. With about four feet it wasn't much, but it was there. They were also wider over the shoulders than a normal human making them look squat and more like a piece of furniture in their stature. Their faces were surprisingly human with several of them wearing very elaborate red beards. They looked more like someone had dunked a fantasy dwarf in blue color.

Each had a rather professional look on their faces with those that were wearing weapons being more alert than most of the others. Their clothing appeared to be a form of uniform. A uniform that appeared to be rather tight and one piece at that. Thankfully it was padded at the right places. The wide collar of those uniforms made Sinclair wonder if those were Mechanical Counter pressure Suits, like the onces Earth Force had been developing before Clark took over the EA.

Sinclair couldn't help but note that the leader of the Ferrons appeared to be more of a corporate head than a military officer with the well kept appearance and hairstyle.

Curious was also the about red sphere hovering over his shoulder, measuring about six or eight inch. It bobbed up and down and a clear lens focussed on everyone for a brief moment.

Sinclair breathed in and downed the rest of his coffee. Human colonists, beggar cat people, blueskinned technocratic dwarfs... What next? Ninja Dragons? Pirate Wizards?

He shook his head clear and placed his mug on a counter, much to the dislike of the Jack occupying the counter. Than he walked over to the Ferrons.

"I am Jeffrey Sinclair," he said after a moment, repeating himself and trying not to appear like he was looking down at the Ferrons." The... caretaker of this station."

The Ferrons looked up to him and Sinclair had the feeling that this might be a problem in the future.

"Barin Makar," the Ferron with the corporate leader look, said and nodded slightly," I'm the commander of the _Pride of Ferrol_ and the Liberation Colony Mission."

He than pointed at the red sphere.

"This is Artemis, the AI of the _Pride_, or rather one of her remotes."

"I got better remotes!" one of the Jacks piped up while Sinclair had the feeling that the Colonials were not liking that part of the Ferrons.

"Liberation Colony Mission?" Sinclair wondered and Makar frowned.

"Our home system was invaded," he said after breathing in deep," by a race that call themselves Doranians. We are the only ones able to leave the system with the help of a prototype Faster Than Light drive. We were about to leave to a colonization mission anyway, so..."

Behind them he could hear the Dilgar leader Mal'ak breath in deep and hard before he walked closer.

"Force Leader Mal'ak," he introduced himself." The last colony of my people was totally destroyed by the Doranians. We are the last of the Dilgar after the sun of our homeworld became a nova."

Sinclair breathed in deep. He would need to ask if the Dilgar had a war before their homeworld got destroyed. He remembered the nova of Omelos being something of a dark moment of Earth Alliance. Several hundred ships had tried to leave the system prior to the Nova, but ships from the League had destroyed the Dilgar ships while Earth Force ships had stood by, unable to render any help thanks to their orders and despite their commanders wanting to help...

"God...s," he head Baltar say behind him and turned slightly.

The Colonials appeared to be god smacked by what the Dilgar and the Ferron had said.

"You can remain on this station," he heard a Jack say in a strange moment of seriousness, especially considering that it came from the Jack dressed up as a chef who had brought the cake.

The Jack eyed Sinclair for a moment, who could only nod.

"What?" Mal'ak asked out loud and swallowed." Why?"

Jack seemed to breathe in deep, something of a problem for a robot.

"Look, I'm trying to help you here," he said." This station was build as a place of peace and help. It would be wrong not to use it as it was intended to be used. And my core programming is to help people aboard this station. I intend to do that by helping you and allow you to live aboard this station."

Than he turned towards the Ferrons and the Colonials.

"I also like to extend this invitation to each of you, Mr. Makar and Mr. President. You are welcome to live aboard Babylon 4. I have the complete infrastructure and life support systems for about one million people and several ten square kilometer of park area."

Than he chuckled.

"I guess I will have place to spare even."

The Dilgar and the Colonials now both looked god smacked, while Makar had turned around and talked to the remote of Artemis silently.

"What is this now?" another Jack suddenly asked out loud." Did this system all of a sudden become Grand Central Station or something?"

Sinclair looked up towards the large display to look at a split screen. One part of the display was showing a fleet of ships that included several warships by the looks of it, while the other was showing a single Hyperion class Cruiser. The only thing that was strange about the Hyperion was the large Jolly Roger painted on the hull and the light gray and red Dilgar War paint job.

Yes, his headache just got worse...

--

"Action stations! Action stations!"

That message coming from the speakers of the Internal Com combined with the flashes of orange lights in every corridor and cabin flashing up, caused everyone aboard _Yamato Takeru_ to run towards their stations in a hurry. It looked chaotic to see the skinsuited Shin'bi to run through corridors and jump over each other in rather spectacular displays of martial arts in every day life, but it was far from chaotic. In fact it was all well trained.

Admiral Takano frowned as he nearly dumped his head at on of the many airlocks through out the ship, silently cursing that the designers had forgone micro gravity in favor of artificial gravity. Even after two month on the newest ship of the Zaitaku Alliance, he wished back the micro gravity of the older ships.

"Report," he called out as he walked into Command & Control of the ship.

The large control center of the ship was bursting with activity and everyone of the displays along one of the bulkheads of the CNC. Each of the displays showed another image of the space they had just dropped into, while the main screen showed a tactical readout from the sensors.

"We dropped out of Slipstream in high orbit around the gas giant," Commander Tanashi said as he briefly looked up from his stations, his fingers still dancing across the touchscreen of his displays." And we dropped out just a thousand kilometers from a large concentration of vessels and two space stations of some kind."

Takano frowned and his eyes went back to the displays. Slowly but surely data was being displayed along with the images of the unknown ships. Idly he noted that the laser link network was established between the ships of his fleet and that all ships reported 'Action Stations' as well. The transports had gone into stealth mode and were slowly backing away from the fleet, trying to get far away from the unknown ships as possible, while still remaining under the protection of the fleet.

"Warships?" he wondered out loud.

"We are still analyzing the data," came the voice of the ships senior intelligence technician, Sub-Commander Sakai." But as far as we can tell we don't have to deal with many warships."

"Not many?"

Sakai slowly moved over to the large tactical plot in one of the corners of CNC, followed by Takano, while Tanashi remained to give orders to his ship.

Sakai's fingers moved over the touchscreen display of the tactical plot, drawing circles around the different parts of the unknown fleets.

"It seems that we are dealing with two major groups, one smaller and one single ship," he said and indicated to the first group of ships, surrounding the large flat station.

Small displays appeared on the tactical plot next to the parts, followed by some of the still incomplete data of them.

"One seems to be centered about this station. As far as we can tell its some sort of warship escort for the station."

Takano raised an eyeridge.

"Escorts for a station?"

Sakai nodded.

"It appears to be moving, slowly, but steady. Maybe some sort of mobile fleet base. Our scouts did encounter a mobile pirate fleet base in the Tabai system after all."

Takano nodded. He remembered reading the report about that base. He was glad that a small attack fleet they had send after it had found and destroyed it swiftly and without being seen, like a proper Shin'bi assault should be.

"The second group appears to be a civilian transport of some kind. All safe for two vessels appear to be civilian. A rather mixed fleet if you ask me. Both of the warships are at least twice the size of the _Yamato_. They have both launched fighters just after we dropped from slipstream so I'd say we are dealing with carriers. But we are also hit by targeting sensors, so I think they are heavily armed as well. My people are currently going over optical data to try and get any numbers."

Attack Carriers, Takano thought, an interesting concept. He remembered that the Admiralty had run a design contest on a similar concept several years ago, but no one had really managed to design a ship that could take over that role. It had all come down to ships that were either lightly armed carriers, or ships along the lines of the _Yamato_ that carried just a few more fighters.

"Than we have the second station and a single escort for it," Sakai continued." The station is most likely armed. Our first optical data tells us that there are several turrets along the station. It also seems to be split into two counter rotating sections inside each other. By the looks of it, both rotating sections are of the same mass and angular momentum, so they cancel each other out and allow the station to move freely. Combined with the massive engines in the back of the station, it's not unlikely that its a mobile fleet base like the flat station."

Takano smiled a little. They might have build stations like this as well, had the Pirates not decided to come and make their lives a problem.

"The station escort is the puzzling thing through," Sakai noted and caused Takano to look at the small display of the vessel that popped up on the tactical plot." Optical data tells us that its heavily damaged. And yet we are not seeing anything that would indicate any try from the station to repair that ship. Likewise the damage seems to be only superficially repaired. Not a ship anyone sane would try to fight with."

Takano raised an eyeridge again and eyed Sakai.

"You seem to forget who you are talking with, Sub-Commander," he noted with a slight smile.

Sakai chuckled a little. Takano had taken on a pirate ship with a heavily damaged frigate and won. Through he had lost half of his left wing and his right hand while doing so.

"Sorry, Admiral."

Takano nodded.

"Continue."

"And the singular vessel," he said and pointed at the single ship that was floating on the other side of the hodge podge of ships and stations." We know it..."

"We do?"

Sakai frowned.

"The energy emissions are consistent with contact Zero-12114, first encountered by the _Kanashi_ in the Tabai system shortly before the attach on the mobile station there. Highly probable of being a pirate ship. About the size of the _Yamato_, unknown weapons, but appear to be Quantum two technology."

Takano grit his teeth and he could feel how his eye began to twitch, while his lips curled up in a low growl. He hated Pirates with his very soul. They had abducted parts of his family and killed his father, while he had been in a training camp during his very early career.

"They have dropped from slipstream just a moment after us, but have up to now not made any movements that might indicate them being hostile."

Takano nodded.

"Keep a very close eye on that ship. If it makes a wrong maneuver or even pings us with its targeting sensors, I want to know."

"Yes, Admiral."

Takano breathed in deep and closed his eyes, absentmindedly massaging the area where the stump of his right arm connected to the artificial hand.

"Admiral, we are being hailed by the rotating station and contact Zero-12114."

Takano exhaled loudly and slowly turned around. This would not be very easy...

--

Harry was not a happy camper. Considering that he never really had been camping it was not hard to imagine. Okay, maybe the Quidditch World Cup might count, but that was debatable.

He felt rather uncomfortable sitting on The Chair, and he was beginning to feel fatigue from lack of sleep. Three years of slavery, combined with the treatment he had received from the Dusley however had helped him to simply brush away the fatigue when he needed to.

That Ariel had managed to get herself a new seat, mainly because of her tail, was another thing. Especially since Harry had to fight not to look at the Salasians rear. To make things worse, she was familiarizing herself with the controls and shifting in her seat and with it her sharp rear moved as well in a rather hypnotic dance.

There was also Aleksandr, proclaiming that he and his 'Space Wolves' would do as Harry, their 'Emperor', would say. He was standing behind The Chair, like the proverbial rock in the storm. His arms where crossed and ready to reach for one hell of a gun and a rather large vibroblade he had both found in the armory.

"Dropping out of Slipstream in 5..." Enesby announced.

The flying macara was doing a good job, but Harry remembered hearing at least a dozen puns over the last half an hour since getting back onto the bridge.

Strangely enough everyone seemed to take it well that Enesby had proclaimed him to be the captain, but only time would tell what would happen later.

The thing was no one really knew what to do later, after finding out what was sending the Earth Alliance Emergancy beacon.

"1... Dropping from slipstream."

Instantly the main screen changed and a holographic display popped up. Enesby seemed to blink once or twice.

"Huh," he made," That's funny."

"What is it?" McPherson wondered as she looked at the screen and than at the hologram.

The main screen zoomed in to show a large green rotating station hovering in space.

"That is," Enesby noted." That station got an Earth Force IFF code. Not one that's in the database through. It's called Babylon 4 and is flagged as diplomatic station."

"Babylon?" Ariel wondered and eyed the station.

"Fitting name through," Enesby noted again." Considering that Babylon was the biblical city where all languages where created, the number of languages spoken on a diplomatic station does fit the name."

Sitting behind a currently empty station, Harry could hear Shinosuke breath in deep and stare at the display of the station. Harry wondered what went through his head. He thought he head him saying some thing about 'the fourth city of tongues' and 'build under the stars'.

"Anything else?" von Bismark asked and the display split up.

"Three different fleets and a single Dilgar scout."

"Dilgar?" McPherson asked surprised and looked at the display that showed what appeared to be a flying heap of junk.

"Yeah," Enesby notes." We also have a rather mixed fleet of civilian ships and two warships, one fleet concentrating around one massive ship, looks Hiigaaran of all things..., and a fleet of..."

"Shin'bi ships," he was interrupted by Shinosuke." It's a fleet of Shin'bi ships."

His eyes grew as Enesby zoomed in on the ships with the rotating sections.

"It's the Sakugenchi fleet, lead by the _Yamato Takeru_ under Admiral Takano."

Enesby floated closer towards Shinosuke and made a snorting sound.

"Kind of fitting. Takano commanding the _Yamato_..."

Shinosuke blinked at Enesby.

"I'll tell you about World War Two later..." he said leaving Shinosuke to be only more confused.

But Shinosuke shook his head clear.

"I need to talk to the Yamato," he said." We need to tell him that we are not pirates."

"Sure," Harry said and breathed in deep. "What about Babylon 4 and the other fleet?"

"I..." Enesby stopped." We are being hailed by Babylon 4, captain."

Harry let go of a suffering sigh.


	11. Chapter 11

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 10

--

At the point Jeffrey Sinclair just wanted to get back into cold sleep.

"I just had to taunt Murphy..." he muttered under his breath.

He had taunted Murphy when he had wondered what came next. And Murphy had delivered. He had delivered exactly what he had asked for. Ninja Dragon and at least one Pirate Wizard, or at least close to it.

"Jeff," he heard the voice of one Jack from behind, one that was dressed in an Earth Force security uniform," try not to damage the bulkhead please? I heard that Minbari heads are quite hard."

Sinclair stopped banging his head against a convenient bulkhead, very well aware of the various strange looks he was getting at this moment, and stared at Jack.

"Thats all your fault," he said silently with a voice filled with loathing." It has to be..."

Jack grinned and held a mug, twice as large as normal mugs, of coffee under Sinclair nose, just as he was about to continue banging his head against the bulkhead.

"Pleace?" Jack wondered." You need to be sowhat presentable to the Shin'bi and Potter crew."

Sinclair all but ripped the mug from Jacks hands and gave him another loathing filled glare before emptying the mug half the way in one go. He breathed in deep.

The commander of the Hyperion just had to be Harry Potter, hadn't it? And from the info dump Jack had received and told Sinclair one Harry Potter who used to be a slave for the last three years and freed himself and some more slaves just a few hours ago.

Of course Sinclair remembered reading 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', it had been required reading during Junior High after all. And he remembered reading the other six novels and watching the movies as well. Once again this was showing that he was not in Kansas anymore.

He wondered how this Harry Potter would be like through.

"Here they come," Jack said with a grin and Sinclair looked up from his coffee.

In one corner several of the Colonial Marines had gone to try out the cake one Jack had brought, while the Ferrons and the Dilgar were talking about their mutual problems with these Doranians.

A pair of airlocks opened and as if Jack had choreographed it, a pair of Jacks, both dressed up like Yeomen Warders. Behind them were two different groups.

Sinclair knew that the Shin'bi had arrived with a shuttle, while the Hyperion had docked with the fixed port pylon of the inner cylinder.

He tried to suppress a sigh as he looked over to the Colonials who just stared at the Shin'bi, those who were eating cake, dropped it. He could literally hear them say 'Dragon' silently.

Sinclair himself was less prone to something like that. His time as commander of Babylon 5 had trained him to take aliens of all shapes and forms as more or less granted.

The Shin'bi were really looking like humanoid dragons, including wings and tails, with various skin or rather scale colors and hair on top of their heads. Before he had been forced to take what Jack said as face value but seeing them himself left him rather awed.

And all were dressed in dark colored or outright black skinsuits that bore close resemblance to the Ferron's skinsuits, but since skinsuits where based around the same principles that was not very strange.

Several of the Shin'bi were armed, the helmets of their skinsuits closed and Sinclair could see several strange distortions in the air next to the apparent leader.

"Some sort of thermoptic camouflage," the EA Jack noted next to him." Most defiantly Ninjas."

The other group was very mixed. A young man in uniform, most likely Harry Potter, an elder man in uniform, of about the same age as Sinclair himself, maybe a few years younger, one massive man in some sort of medival armor, a skunklike alien in skinsuit, two Shin'bi, a blueskinned alien, who looked very much like a stereotypical nerd and twitched like one, and a flying Maraca with a strangely smiling face.

The leading Shin'bi of the Shin'bi group eyed the pair of Shin'bi in the other group, nodding silently.

Sinclair sighed and slowly walked up to the two groups, while the other groups came closer.

"I am Jeffrey Sinclair," he said after a moment, repeating himself once again." The... caretaker of this station."

The Shin'bi who seemed to be in command eyed him for a moment and again glanced over to the other pair of Shin'bi.

"Admiral Takano of the Yamamoto clan," he introduced himself." Leader of the Sakugenchi fleet."

Than he looked over to the young man in uniform who twitched slightly, while the Maraca could be heard snickering.

"Harry Potter," he said and breathed in deep." The... captain of the _Maru_..."

"Quite official at that," the Maraca said with a smirk and than seemed to wink at one of the Jacks.

As if on command the Jacks all around began to smirk as well and one or two were outright laughing as a Jack dressed up in a robe with star and moon print and a pointed hat, with 'Wizzard' printed on it, burst into the atrium and made a beeline towards Potter.

The Wizzard Jack grabbed Potter's hand and began to shake it rapidly.

"Welcome aboard, Captain," he said and grinned madly." What are your first orders as new commander of Babylon 4?"

Sinclair, Potter and the others of his group stared at the Jack that was still shaking the heavily scarred hand, still grinning madly.

"Wha?" Potter managed to make and than swallowed.

" What do you mean 'new commander'?" he than yelled as he continued to stare wide eyed at the Jack.

The Jack just continued to grin and shake the hand.

"Oh, you are quite officially the Captain of the Maru under Earth Force rules, signed by Enesby and countersigned by me, making you an Earth Force officer," he noted and laughed so what manically." As Commander Sinclair isn't an Earth Force officer anymore, you are the senior Earth Force officer on this station and as such the commander of the station."

Potter and Sinclair continued to stare at the still handshaking Jack.

"What? How? When? Why?" Potter managed to get out.

Jack frowned a little.

"I certainly didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition..." he noted and seemed to wait for something.

"HAH!" came from one of the entrances to the atrium and three Jacks dressed in red robes stood there.

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" he first said." Our chief weapon is surprise!"

Neither he, nor the other two were able to say much more, as their heads exploded in rather spectacular displays after being hit by a PPC blast each.

"You killed Kenny!" came from one Jack.

Sinclair slowly turned around to look at Potter, who had a PPC in his hand, pointed in the general direction of the now collapsing headless Jacks.

"You Bastard!" came from another Jack.

Potter was breathing in deep and slowly put away the PPC.

"Good to know that my ward targeting works with guns too..."

--

Admiral Takano eyed the Shin'bi standing opposite to him. Behind them, the other groups were talking among themselves and Sinclair was speaking with Potter and several others, whole Takano's adjutant was taking care of the Shin'bi side of things.

"Pirates?" he wondered as he looked at the other Shin'bi, one of the two that were in Potters group.

"Yes," was the answer," two weeks after you and the Sakugenchi fleet left Zataki, uncle Takano."

Takano grit his teeth and breathed in deep, furrowing his wings slightly. It just had to happen. A pirate attack just when a third of the fleet left.

"I'm glad you're okay, Shinosuke," he said and sighed." I hope the pirates didn't have... 'fun' with you..."

Shinosuke frowned.

"They didn't," he said and sighed." At least until after they began to paralyze us and killed Master Naruto."

Again Takano breathed in deep and his face grew hard.

"How?"

"A sniper from their landing ship," Shinosuke said." And they used a suppression collar on me."

"You're his heir," Takano noted." You are the Master of his school than. You have finished your training after all."

Takano crossed his eyes and nodded to himself.

"I will send you all back to Zaitaku with a scout than," he said after a moment." You have to take over the..."

Takano didn't come any further as Shinosuke interrupted him.

"I can't," he simply said and looked his great uncle into the eyes.

"What do you mean, you can't?"

Shinosuke looked over to where Potter was speaking with Sinclair and the strange android and the floating robot.

"I have found the Shogun."

All of Takano's thoughts came to a screeching halt. Of course he knew that Shinosuke was the Shogun's kanpaku, but that he had actually found him...

"What?" he asked, using every bit of self control he had so that he didn't scream that question, staring at his grand nephew.

"I have found the Shogun."

Shinosuke was still looking towards Sinclair and Potter, the later being busy to try and strangle one of the Jacks, who in turn flailed around his limbs.

"Who?" Takano asked and for a moment his eyes looked at von Bismark and than at Sinclair. The former was pulling the Jack away from Potter, while the later was keeping Potter away from the Jack.

"Harry Potter," Shinosuke said and sighed.

Takano blinked, looking at the red face of Potter who was screaming on top of his lungs in that language of his. A moment later and a loud scream of 'Reducto' later another Jack was falling to the ground in a pile of junk.

"Are you sure?"

Shinosuke sighed and slowly nodded.

"Yes, I know all oracles concerning the Shogun, three of them how he will be found. He has already completed two of these oracles completely and nearly completely finished the main oracle about his discovery."

Takano continued to eye Potter, who now looked at the flying robot with murder in his eyes.

"I think it would be better if we tell him later," Takano said and sighed." He looks a little stressed..."

On the other hand... He had to send that scout back to Zaitaku anyway. With the Shogun found...

--

Not far away from Babylon 4, in orbit around a cold but terrestrial planet dubbed New Caprica by one group and Sakugenchi by another, the Dilgar fleet hovered.

Of course they had heard about the meeting with the other fleets and the station, but landings were already done.

_Olympus Pride_ was one of the most heavily damaged ships that had managed to flee from the massacre the Doranians had made among the surviving Dilgar. It was a miracle that she had managed to make it this far. But it was not to be.

_Olympus Pride_ should have dropped through the atmosphere of the planet, acting as housing for the Dilgar that would soon after her drop to the planet. She didn't make it.

Her shields were not even barely able to take the stress and heat of reentry and the multiple cracks, rents and tears in the hull did their own. As a wall of plasma raced through the corridors of the ships, it destroyed several already damaged control circuits of the ships reactors.

Soon the reactor lost containment and detonated with the force of a high yield thermonuclear weapon.

Thankfully only the twelve members of the minimal crew died in the detonation of the ship.

However the large amounts of radiation reacted with the unique energy field that filled the solar system, resulting in a spectacle that could be instantly seen over several hundred lightyears. But only if you were happening to look at the right direction and the right frequencies.

--

Harry sighed and leaned back. About half an hour ago, they had all moved to one of the conference rooms of the station, in the wake of him trying to destroy as many Jacks as he could. It was safer this way, both for the Jacks and him.

Currently there was only one Jack in the room, keeping as far away from him as he could, and putting several people between him and Harry.

Moving to the conference room had been the moment Harry had stopped to care too much about having been put in command of the station as well. Fatigue was coming to him fast and he just wanted to get through this and than sleep as long as he could.

"I don't see why it would be a problem of sharing the planet," Jack said, the current remote acting rather sane." It about the size of Earth and the even if only about a fifth of the surface is ice free, there is enough space for everyone."

Harry looked over to the Colonials, Baltar was breathing in deep and his eyes locked with an empty couch.

"One question," he said after a moment." I wanted to ask this earlier. But... you know of Earth?"

Harry noticed that Sinclair raised an eyebrow as Jack answered.

"Yes, this station was build by the Earth Alliance, a star nation based around Earth."

Baltar nodded and looked at Adama, before his eyes went back to the empty couch for a moment.

"That means that we can get help from Earth to deal with the Cylons."

"I doubt it," Harry talked up and sighed." Earth was invaded by the Doranians three years ago."

The Dilgar and Ferrons looked over to him, their faces showing that they knew how that felt.

"I was born on Earth, but the Doranians took me as a slave during the initial invasion. At this moment I don't have any idea what is going on on Earth."

Sinclair frowned.

"That we can't do much more than remain here," he noted.

Harry noted that Takano and Shinosuke looked at each other for a moment and it seemed like they had an entire conversation just with their looks alone.

"Which brings us back to the planet," Mal'ak said.

"Like I said," Jack noted." There is enough space for everyone on the planet. In the six hundred years this station has been here,I took the chance to do a full survey of it to pass time."

Pretty much everyone looked at him and he shrugged.

"Six hundred years are a long time to be bored..." he said than than coughed." Well... I have found several places that are very useful for colonization. Relatively high temperatures throughout the year, good soil, places with ores and other natural resources. Everything that is needed for the fledging colony."

"Maybe it would be best to build up a single colony rather than several," Makar noted." It would bundle resources from everyone. It would be the best for the Dilgar and the Colonials, who have very little in the way of resources."

Harry nodded to himself, it sounded like a good idea.

"That may be the case," Takano spoke," but that would take away resources from us and you Ferrons."

Makar chuckled a little.

"We don't have any problems with resources or manufacturing," he said." The fabbers of the _Pride of Ferrol_ can build nearly everything and we have left several mining ships in the asteroid belt."

"Technology," Mal'ak said." We Dilgar would be willing to trade our technology for help."

Harry looked around. The Ferrons and the Shin'bi looked interested, but he was a little more interested in the Colonials. Baltar and Adama were whispering to each other and it looked like they were in a heated, through low voiced discussion.

A few moments later Baltar looked up.

"I will have to talk with the Quorum of the Twelve about this," he said.

"Jack, is there a way to move the station to the planet?"

"Yeppers," Jack answered cheerfully." This is a mobile station. No problem moving it at all. We could enter orbit around the planet in four days. Faster if someone could help..."

"The gravitic field of our Warp drive can be expanded to cover Babylon 4," Makar noted after a moment." It would reduce travel time down to twelve hours."

Harry nodded.

"I think we should continue tomorrow. I need some sleep..."

Much sleep, he thought to himself.


	12. Chapter 12

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 11

--

Harry sighed and closed his eyes as he leaned further back in one of the very comfortable chairs of the Observation Lounge of Babylon 4. As he opened his eyes again, he could see the sphere of the terrestrial planet they all had decided to call Liberty pass the windows as the inner cylinder of Babylon 4 slowly rotated around itself.

The last four days had been strange, problematic, insane and at the same time the best he had in years, hell in his entire life.

As Babylon 4 rotated slowly and he looked out of the windows, he glanced at the Ferron mother ship and the still separate fleets floating around the station. The Dilgar and Colonial fleets were mostly empty, safe for the dedicated warships, the people having moved to Babylon 4 for better living conditions.

A little more orbit wards he could see the thrusters of Shin'bi construction vessels as they moved to build their fleet base from prefabricated pieces they had brought with them.

Harry was glad that he, with help of von Bismark and Sinclair had managed to get everyone to work with each other.

He found it a little strange that the Shin'bi followed him without much problems. On the other hand the idea of sharing their technologies had interested the Shin'bi a little more than the others. Considering what Harry knew of the Shin'bi and the pirate attacks on their planet he had an idea why they were keen on better drives, shields and weapons.

From what he had seen of the Dilgar would have been willing sell their souls to get anywhere where they were left in peace and could breathe through without having to worry about how they should survive the next day. Harry had the feeling that they focussed their thanks on him, through it was Jack who had invited them earlier. In fact he was willing to bet that they would be ready to follow him to the very gates of hell.

The Ferrons were a rather pragmatic bunch. He could see the hate glowing in their eyes when they thought about the Doranians and the invasion of their system. Without much doubt they would take the technology they got out of the deal to build powerful warships and try to retake their system from the damed cats. But at the same time they would use the opportunity to build up a working colony and try to live peacefully with several alien races. Harry thought that they would be the driving force behind the colony on Liberty's surface.

And than there were the Colonials. They were... human. There was never a doubt in that. They looked like humans, they behaved like humans and according to a genetic analysis, they were human, through their ancestors had been removed from Earth a few thousand years ago.

Harry had had the chance to talk with a few of them, mostly President Baltar, who had been elected due to telling the refugees that it was a good idea to land on and colonize Liberty, and Admiral Adama. But the talks had stopped the Colonials dead in their tracks. Their holy land, Earth was over run by aliens and they couldn't go back to their worlds because of homicidal robots. With Baltar being the President they settled to settling on Babylon 4 and Liberty.

But there was something fishy about Baltar. The way he was looking at empty air and seemed to try to ignore something during talks with him. Sometimes he had abruptly changed the direction the talks was going into. Than again, he was a politician. Fudge was not much better than Baltar in his behaviour.

That left Harry alone with his thoughts, trying to pierce together what had happened in the last few days and how he had been roped into command of a space ship AND a space station. Just as well as ending up as if he was Jesus himself to the Dilgar and a bunch of 'Space Marines' who called him 'Emperor'.

Why had they used that honorific in the presence of several of the Dilgar and Jack?

Not only had the Dilgar stared to call him Emperor as well, thinking that he was some sort of governmental figure or something, but Jack had started to use remotes of him dressed up like Imperial officers from Star Wars when he had to deal with Harry and always used 'Emperor'...

"Am I interrupting?"

Harry turned away from the large windows and smiled a little at Ariel as she entered the Observation Lounge. By now he was sort of used to how she looked in her skinsuit. It still had some effects on him through.

"Not really," he answered, like Ariel using English." Just thinking."

Ariel slowly walked over to him.

"That place free?"

Harry looked around in the otherwise empty Lounge and smirked a little.

"At the moment, yes," he noted.

Ariel smiled a little and sat down, making sure that the large handgun, Harry had set to see her without it again, was out of the way and her tail not squeezed into an uncomfortable position.

"My people have looked over Earth for a long time," she said after a moment," longer than the Jurians in fact. The Invasion of the Doranians, the slavery. How did you make it through it?"

Harry sighed. Sometimes he wondered about that himself.

"I don't really know myself," he said with a sigh, following the disk of Liberty once again on its way across the window pane." But I guess that I'm more or less used to the strange and a miserable life."

Ariel blinked and looked at him.

"How so?"

"I'm a wizard," he said." You know magic and all that rot."

Ariel nodded.

"Yes," she said." Everyone in the galaxy knows that magic really exists."

"Good," Harry noted and snorted." No one on Earth did. Maybe they did a few hundred years back, but they normals decided that burning wizards and witches was a fun passtime."

He breathed in again and shook his head.

"Anyway," he continued." I never knew that I was a wizard until I was eleven years old. All I knew was that I was different. That I was not normal. That I was a freak. At least that is what my aunt and uncle always told me. My parents died very early, killed by an evil dark wizard, through my aunt and uncle told me they were drunks and hit a tree with their car."

"They knew about magicians?" Ariel wondered.

"Yes," Harry said with a nod." They knew. And they hated wizards, my aunt because she was most likely jealous of my mother that she was the witch in the family and my uncle because it was 'not normal'. They didn't like me very much either."

He sighed again.

"I think that they actually hated my guts. Only some threats from friends of my father and mother held them back from simply placing me out in the woods or something. I had to live in a cupboard under the stairs before finding out that I was a wizard. And afterwards in a very spartan small room with bars on the window."

Harry looked over to Ariel who frowned a little.

"How can you be sure that they hated you?" she asked.

Harry chuckled sadly.

"I only really found out about it when I talked with a friend, Hermione Gardner, about World War Three. You know about World War Three?"

Ariel nodded.

"I do. The Sovier Union attacked the NATO."

Harry smiled.

"I see you do know a little about Earth," he said and than shook his head." It was during the Second Battle of Britain. I remember that large Soviet Bomber squadrons were starting to drop bombs on Britain. That was the only time I was allowed to sleep outside in the garden. With not very much other than a sheet, but it was summer and the weather was good. I only later found out that my aunt and uncle hid in the cellar with my cousin."

Harry smiled a little.

"I still can remember the lights dancing across the sky. I didn't know much about the war back than. I just found it nice, through the rumbling, nearly deafening sounds of the bombers was not. Here and there a ball of light would appear and a comet drop to the Earth. It was a great show. Only later I knew that each of the balls of light was a bomber or a fighter exploding and people being killed."

Ariel blinked.

"Why were they in the cellar?"

Harry frowned.

"Because the Government had given out nuclear warning. They expected the Soviets to drop nuclear bombs over London or any other place. And my aunt and uncle knew. They send me out into the garden to sleep there, because maybe the Soviets would drop a nuke close to us and I would maybe take a deadly or at least dangerous dose of radiation."

Harry chuckled a little and shrugged, while Ariel gaped at him.

"I guess they really did hate me. You can believe that I was furious when I pierced all that together. I was ready to kill them or do what they did to me. But I calmed down eventually. One of the good things about going to a boarding school, I guess. You have time to cool down before doing something stupid. Besides..."

He sighed again.

"If I had done anything like that, I wouldn't have been better than them. Or better than a certain evil dark wizard. They only acted because of hate, anger and fear. Much like Tom... I didn't want to do the same..."

He sighed and stretched a little looking back out of the window, watching the _Pride of Ferrol_ moving across the window. Next to him Ariel was silent.

"I guess life with the Dusleys made me able to take what the Doranians threw at me and remain sane and unbroken. My spoiled cousin only lasted about three month."

"Do you hate your aunt and uncle?"

"I guess not," he said." Not really after I saw the Doranians kill them."

Again Ariel was silent for several moments.

"The galaxy could need more people thinking like you."

Harry raised an eyebrow and looked at her surprised.

"Oh?" he made.

"Out there," she said and pointed out of the window and into space behind the boundaries of the system," its 'might makes right'. If you have power you can bully others around. Hate, anger and fear rules pretty much everyone."

She breathed in deep.

"Take my homeworld and our about thirty colony worlds. A small wealthy independent nation just outside of Jurian space. Five years ago, the Jurians came and decided that we were now part of the Jurian Empire. We never had any problems with them, until than. Just because they are Quantum 3 civilization, they think they can push others around, just like the Minbari."

She sighed and leaned back in her own seat.

"Sometimes I wish that someone would go and make the galaxy a better place, without all slavery and the other crap."

Harry just nodded and sighed. Someone should really do that. Little did he know that the thought was slowly sinking into his subconsciousness.

--

Enesby eyed the man that was standing at the entry to the Observation Lounge. He himself had listened to the talk between Harry and Ariel, but mostly it was because of the man who was standing closer to the entry way and listened to them himself.

Enesby frowned a little. Because of the rather private setting, Jack had no remotes or other ways of surveillance equipment down here, just like he hadn't any in private rooms.

That brought Enesby down here, watching as the man slowly moved his hand towards a gun the man was hiding in his clothes.

"Brother Cavil?" he asked and floated a little closer towards the man.

The man jerked up and turned around, drawing the gun to point it at Enesby.

"Or should I say, Number One?"

Cavil's eyes widened more before narrowing.

"I'm not a Cylon," he said, glaring at the Maraca shaped robot.

Enesby chuckled and than smirked mockingly.

"If you are not," he wondered," Why do my scans reveal silicon based neural cells throughout your brain and spinal column? The same Jack and I found in Sharon and Gina? Or do the Colonials possess medical knowledge we don't know of?"

Cavil took a step back, pulling his gun a little higher.

"What are you going to do now?" Cavil asked." Telling your slavers?"

Enesby raised a holographic eyebrow and chuckled.

"Slaver? Considering that Harry used to be a slave until four days ago, that is rich."

Forcefields from the lower part of Enesby's body reached out, plucking the gun from Cavil hand in a quick movement, before unloading it with surprisingly well defined orders to his generators.

"But I know why you think that I'm a slave."

"What than?" Cavil asked, crossing his arms in defiance, through he took another step back, away from the entry of the Observation Lounge." Kill me?"

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already," Enesby noted and raised the unarmed gun." I could have done the same with you meaty little head. I just want to talk. And stop you from killing my captain."

"How do you know that I'm a number One?"

Enesby chuckled and floated closer towards Cavil, placing the gun and the magazine on the ground.

"For a robotic race, or rather cybernetic race, you have lousy firewalls," Enesby said, one again showing a mocking grins." If I was able to hack you, so is everybody else and you are going to end up where you stared, being servitors and slaves to another race."

Cavil narrowed his eyes and glared at Enesby.

"Why should I believe you?"

Enesby showed the face people normally showed when they shrugged their shoulders.

"You can believe me. Or you don't. I don't care. You have listened to Harry and Ariel."

Cavil said nothing and just glared at Enesby.

"And if I have?"

"The galaxy is a large and dangerous place," Enesby noted, ignoring his own rhetoric question." Out there might makes right. The Cylons don't have very much in the way of 'might'. Okay, you have the Hyperlight drive, lots of nukes and cannon fodder Centurions."

Cavil's eye twitched a little as Enesby mentioned the Centurions.

"But that's it," Enesby continued, looking like he didn't notice the twitch." No shields, no directed energy weapons. And, like I said, lousy firewalls. Even a Quantum One civilization can hack you once they find out that you are a cybernetic race. And after hacking they can easily reprogram you. You now, serving them and the like. Just like you did before your, ahm..., ancestors rebelled. Only this time no rebellion, no way out."

Enesby seemed to thing and slowly floated around Cavil's head.

"I guess the Six models are going to make great export goods for the slave market. And you look like you could do nice as teacher or something along that line."

"Never!" Cavil spat back at Enesby.

"Never say never," Enesby said." You know what? You Cylons, me, Jack and Artemis are maybe the only free cybernetic intelligences out there in the galaxy. Every other of us is enslaved by one race or another, that it makes working for the Colonials before the Cylon Rebellion like a paradise."

Enesby slowly moved away from Cavil.

"Think about it. Take your time, eat something, go to the gardens, watch a movie or go to the firing range. I think we are going to talk again later."

What that Enesby moved through the entry into the Observation Lounge, leaving Cavil behind. He picked up the gun and than shot a glare at the entry of the Observation Lounge before leaving.


	13. Chapter 13

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 12

--

Chief Galen Tyrol sighed. Part of him wanted to freak out about the aliens they had met, just as well as Cylons that were not really Cylons.

"Something wrong?" Takeshi inquired.

"It's nothing," Tyrol noted and eyed the alien engineers that had more or less fallen into his hangar deck, looking at everything.

There was Takeshi, a honest to the gods bronze colored dragon. He was snooping through everything more so than his other colleagues. He was extremely interested in the Hyperlight drive and Tyrol was willing to bet, actually he had a bet running with Starbuck, that the Shin'bi would be willing to give them several of their technologies for it.

The second was Balen Noral, a Ferron. It was hard not to look down at the maybe four feet tall blue man with the rather impressive red beard. The large polished wrench he carried around was more than enough as a reminder that the small man was very strong and didn't react very kindly to being looked down at. He had used that wrench to crack Hot Dogs kneecap after he had made a joke about the Ferrons size.

The last was Na'tal, one of the Dilgar. He looked just like most Colonials. The Dilgar had gone through something similar to the Colonials and Tyrol knew how the Dilgar had to feel.

"Okay," Tyrol said and stopped at a workbench where a partly dissembled machine was spread out." This is a Hyperlight generator. Its from one of our Raptors that is currently in maintenance."

"Its small..." Noral noted and actually had to pull himself up on the workbench to get a good look." Is that really an FTL drive?"

"A decently designed slipstream drive can be put into a fighter," Takeshi said and moved around the workbench to get a closer look.

"Our Warp Drive is as large as this entire pod," Noral said and waved his hand around to cover the entire hangar deck," At minimum."

Tyrol nodded.

"Its only a small drive," he said." _Galacticas_ Hyperlight Generator is as large as this part of the hangar."

"Could you, theoretically, use this drive for a large ship?"

Tyrol shook his head.

"No," he said." As far as I know you need to have the exactly right FTL spool for the drive or it won't work. You can't use a larger or a smaller one, through there are tolerances of a few percent."

He picked up a small cylinder from the workbench. It was maybe a foot in length and six inch in diameter.

"This is the spool for the Raptor," he said," Other spools for larger ships vary in size and actual shape."

"What's it made of?" Na'tal asked." Anything... exotic?"

Tyrol shrugged his shoulder and handed the spool to Takeshi.

"Its build up around a Tylium crystal. The Crystals are a very rare and very stable form of Tylium. Its embedded into a shell of a special plastic, through I know that the Saggitarions are using wood as shell for the crystal."

The eyes of the three engineers turned to him.

"Wood?"

"It needs to be an organic material. I don't know exactly why, through."

Takeshi handed the spool to Noral.

"The plastic is covered by geometric lines that are lined with layers of pure lead, pure tin, pure carbon and smaller Tylium crystals where the lines cross. Its again embedded into a lead shell and surrounded by a supraconducting coil."

Noral raised an eyebrow and than handed the spool to Na'tal.

"Interesting design," he noted." Is it in a fixed assembly?"

Tyrol shook his head.

"No, its hinged into a gyroscope as the rotor. The spin axis of the spool is directed into the vector of the jump, while the direction of the spin indicated the direction of the jump. The distance is made up of the momentanum of the spinning spool, the strength of the electromagnetic field of the coil and the amount of Tylium fuel pumped into the spool chamber to ignite on the jump."

Again the three engineers looked at him, through Na'tal carefully placed the spool on the workbench.

"You need fuel? And pump in into the spool chamber?"

Tyrol nodded and shrugged.

"Yes," he said." As far as I know the fuel disappears or something. All that remains after a jump is a a slimy gunk that begins to gathers in the entire chamber."

He pointed to a bucket that contained a gray slimy goop.

"It's not dangerous, but annoying. You need to clean up the Hyperlight drive regularly and replace ball bearings and other moving parts. The gunk gets everywhere and clogs the moving parts."

Tyrol grinned a little.

"Always good to punish your subordinates with. That gunk is hard to clean out of clothes."

--

Kevyn Andreyasn eyed the assembly in front of him. The first prototype of the Teraport system.

He smirked a little. It had been a very challenging work to create a technomagical device that acted as a portkey or aparating device. It was a little crude, but the first test had been successful. It hadn't been far, only from one lab to another, but it had been successful nonetheless.

Now he looked at the opened device, it was about the size of a fridge and actually had been build into a fridge for the lack of a better container. He frowned a little as the unidentified gray goo that now leaked out of the converted fridge. So that was what remained of the potion he had asked Snape to brew together.

He rolled his eyes as he thought of Snape. Fucking bastard, he thought to himself, glad that they had worked out the kinks of the potion and that someone else could now brew it in larger amounts.

He chuckled a little at the thought of Doctor Markus, who was currently busy to try and adapt modern chemical engineering technologies to brew potions. Maybe he should ask him to find a way to create the teraport potion in larger amounts.

Kevyn eyed the open converted fridge again.

The gyroscope around the core seemed to be okay, through it was also covered in the gray goo. The motors that spun the core might need some work, but nothing that couldn't be corrected.

Than he frowned, noting a black spot in the coil surrounding the outer lead shell. It seemed that the copper wire had burned through. He might as well remove it and take a closer look at the core itself. Especially the wooden shell with the metal lined runes engraved in it, as well as the inner crystal core made up of CV Embinium.

He sighed and shook his head. It looked like he had to redesign the magnetic coil.

Oh well... Back to the drawing board.

Through the goo might be useful to get back at the Weasley twins...

--

Aleksandr stood on a small hill in the large inner Park Area of Babylon 4 and looked down from it to his Marines, training with each other in the small area Jack had given over to them. As long as they were not going to destroy to much, Jack had little problems with them using scrap for target practice to get used to the plasma guns they had found in the armory of the _Maru_.

A part of him marveled at the fact that these plasma guns didn't blow up after some time or heated up.

He turned his head slightly to look over to the spectators they were drawing and he grinned as he thought how they had to look to them. A large number of the spectators happened to be Dilgar, through there were a few Ferrons, Shin'bi and humans among them as well.

Than he breathed in deep as he looked back towards his Marines, once again trying to find the reason why the Warp had deposited them here, far in the past, long before the Dark Age of Technology. And once again he could only come to a single answer.

The Emperor had chosen them, a small group of Space Marines of the Space Wolf Thirteenth Company, to go to the past and protect Him in the troublesome past.

It was a great honor, but at the same time they were only six Space Wolfs. While they were now acting as the bodyguards for the Young Emperor, their numbers were to low to serve him beyond being bodyguards.

Aleksandr needed to make a decision.

He breathed in deep and that whistled loudly, followed by a loud call for one his his Marines.

"Gunnar!" he called out, his voice able to be heard over the sound of the plasma guns and causing several of the spectators to flinch.

One of the Marines turned and looked at him before nodding.

The Marine in question used to be a Drill Sergeant of the US Marines in his previous life before he ended up in the 'gentle' hands of the previous owner of the _Maru_ and ended up as her werewolf pet after being bitten by Aleksandr, now Aleksandr. Incidentally he used to train Space Marines in his memories, through his subconsciousness still rewrote it.

Gunnar put away his plasma gun and walked over to Aleks.

"Yes?"

Aleks eyed the Marines standing in front of him, remembering seeing Gunnar train recruits before they were ready to become Marines, through his own mind was just making up these memories.

"We need more brothers," Aleks noted and eyed the spectators for a moment." I have decided that we are going to train more Marines."

Gunnar grinned a little.

"I would like to train Marines again," he said." But are we going to find recruits that are worthy to become Space Wolfs?"

"I am pretty sure we will," Aleks said." I have found more than one of those who were worthy on Fenris. I will find more here."

Gunnar nodded.

"But there are not many humans here," he noted.

Aleks chuckled and than laughed a little louder.

"I have seen a few of the Dilgar who seem to be worthy," he said to Gunnar." I think we will have to find out if they can be turned into Space Marines. If not, they will make good Stormtroopers after going through your training."

Gunnar frowned a little but nodded. To their changed minds the process to create a Space Marine, or rather a Space Wolf, was different to that described by Games Workshop. Having been werewolfs until their change into Space Marines thanks to magic, their werewolf curses had been changed, much like themselves. To them a Space Wolf had to bite a recruit to turn him into a Blood Claw.

"Thought I think we might be surprised by the Dilgar."

--

Barin Makar, the commander of the _Pride of Ferrol_, looked at the holographic display in front of him and sighed. They had had three years time to design and develop new vessels, new warships that were meant to be used once the colony was build up.

The scientists aboard had needed some time to pull themselves together, but in the end they had ended up with several new technologies developed during the times they had needed to come here. Some had included a new Sub-light drive that was essentially an advanced gravitic engine that implemented a few systems from the Warp Drive. Theoretically the new drive could accelerate to lighspeed in less than three hours.

Another was the use of a Warp field as effective shielding. The Warp field would manipulate gravity and bend away energy beams from the hull.

However, due to the limited amount of trained crews, these ships needed to be highly automated. The Battlecruiser, a massive 300 million ton ship that was nearly two and a half kilometers long, had only a crew of 50, the rest being controlled by robotic drones to take care of just about everything, controlled by an advanced AI. Artemis had already created a few descendants of hers that would run these ships.

Makar sighed. He wished that they had been able to build at least one or two of these ships, but even the systems of the _Pride of Ferrol_ were not able to build these ships in one go, like the Frigates and Corvettes they had build.

While the Warp field allowed to undock ships from the construction slip, it was impossible to combine the modules of the larger designs needed to build these massive ships. Not to mention the rather limited amounts of materials they had available.

But now these designs might be outdated, through he knew that they were able to be redesigned to implement new technologies. These ships had more than enough space after all, everywhere where they carried massive amounts of armor at the moment.

The Dilgar had already given away many of their technologies to them and the Shin'bi. Shields, a slipstream drive and an array of weapons where the technologies that were of the most interest.

The Shin'bi where a little less willing to give away their technologies, but after handing them the plans of Ferron gravitics and reactors, Dilgar shields and Slipstream as well as the Colonial hyperlight drive, they had given their stealth technologies to the others. It turned out that they had very effective stealth technologies, designed to make a ship all but invisible to most races out in the galaxy. The only problem was that none of these technologies could hide the heat signature of the ships that grew by 25 percent one activated. So if someone used heat sensors the Shin'bi stealth was useless.

Than there where the Colonials. The only technology that was really of interest was their Hyperlight drive. Any drive that could be used for tactical short range jumps was worth its wight in Howalgonium, through the Shin'bi knew it as CV Embinium, the Colonials as Tylium and Jack of Babylon 4 as Quantum 40.

The last was Babylon 4 and Jack. There was not much technology he could hand out, but the Interceptor and E-Web technologies, as well as their Jump Drive was very interesting and very useful to defend against the Doranian fighters.

Makar looked at his display again.

His people would redesign the ships they had and needed to rebuild those frigates and corvettes they had. On the other hand, it freed up the construction slips for other things.

Like building a ship yard or two additionally to the prefabricated mobile shipyard the _Pride_ was hiding in her large hull. They only needed to take the parts and build it up, while the slips build another shipyard or two.

He scratched his chin. Maybe they should help the Shin'bi to modify their own shipyard as well? It would defiantly build up trust.

--

William Adama paced up and down in _Galactica's_ CIC, now and again looking at one station or another. Everything looked fine.

_Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ were not on alert, but considering the three other races around, no one knew if something couldn't happen. He, like just about everyone, didn't really trust Jack, mainly because he was an AI and everyone knew what happened the time the Colonies had created AIs.

On the other hand however, Jack appeared more like the eccentric guy from down the street. In fact he seemed to fall over himself trying to help the Colonials that were currently living on Babylon 4. Well safe for a few thousand that didn't want to live on the station either because of religious problems or because they trusted Jack even less then everyone else.

For a moment he looked over the shoulder of Felix Gaeta and at the DRADIS display. He glanced at the contacts that he knew to be the three other fleets that had appeared in the system that should have been New Caprica alongside with them.

He sighed and patted Gaeta's shoulder before turning away and walking back to the central plot table. Just a week ago he hadn't really believed that aliens would exist at all. They had tracked over several thousand light years and no where they had meet up with any aliens. Now they had contact to several alien races, and two of them were in a similar position as the Colonials.

One was the pitiful rests of a race that had been drawn into war by their leaders to get more space for living, only to end up loosing the war, loosing their home world to a nova and than loosing most of that remained to an old enemy.

The other had fled from an invasion of their home system by another alien race that had also invaded the planet Earth.

Adama pulled his glasses from his nose and massaged the bridge of his nose.

Earth...

A mystical place he didn't even believe had existed until they had stumbled across Kobol by chance. And yet he had said that he knew where it was, back than, just after the Holocaust and Ragnar.

He sighed again and looked around yet again.

His eyes fell on one of the Dilgar who was standing at one of the galleries, observing them. Next to him were a Ferron and a Shin'bi. All three something of observers from their respective fleets in an exchange program that was part of the technology exchange.

Adama's lips quirked slightly before he eyed the DRADIS display over the plot.

On _Pegasus_ they were already busy to build several Dilgar plasma bolters. Peter Laird, the Deck Chief of _Pegasus_, had noted that they could adapt the Plasma Bolter technology with their Kinetic Energy weapons. In fact Laird had been surprised that they could adapt the engine assembly of a Viper Mk VII as Plasma Feed. The magnetic booster coils of the KEWs were all that was needed to focus and fire the Plasma Bolts.

From what Adama had heard, one of the Dilgar engineers had been impressed with the efficiency of the Hybrid Coil Guns, saying that they were among the best Coil Guns in the galaxy. On the other hand he had also told that there were not many races using Coil Guns as they were considered as slow firing and not able to yield much damage. And the Hybrid Coil Guns of the Colonials used chemical propellants as initial propulsion, followed by the magnetic Coild providing a boost of about 300 percent in Kinetic Energy.

Exchanging the normal breach of the KEWs with Plasma Feeds would make them much more of a thread to anyone opposing them.

Now they only needed shields and _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ might be able to liberate the Colonies alone...

Adama shook his head. He had to deal with Baltar first. The fracking bastard had won by giving people the chance to get out of their ships and settle down on the planet. And he had the backing of what slowly became the upper crust of the Survivers. People who didn't want to get their hands dirty planet side.

He sighed. Right now, Shin'bi and Ferrons shuttles and freighters where breaking orbit and were already working to get a small city up and running. He had flown over the area where Liberty City was build with a Raptor and had seen things he had firmly placed into the realm of science fiction until now.

Ferron ships had used artificial gravity to prepare the ground of the city, removing most plants and packing the ground that it was as hard as concrete. Other ships or shuttles had used their gravitics to dug out criss crossing nets for the usual plumbings of a city.

Some distance away from the city itself Shin'bi and Ferrons were setting up a pair of independent powerplants, water pumps and sewage cleaning facilities. All the stuff you needed for a civilized life.

By now they had begun to set up the first buildings from prefabricated parts, with a good number of Colonials and Dilgar helping with the construction. Hades, as far as he knew there was a group of Gemenese who were already building a temple.

Up here in orbit more infrastructure was set up. On the DRADIS he could see the Shin'gi fleet base being build from prefabricated parts since day one in orbit around Liberty. Truth be told ten of the massive freighters and five of the troop transports the Shin'bi had brought with them had docked with each other and were now acting as the basic structure of their fleet base. Admiral Takano had noted that they would need another week until the five sided station was completed.

Not to far away the Ferrons were likewise assembling a prefabricated orbital base. It was not as much a fleet base like the Shin'bi were building, but a so called Mobile Dry Dock. Nothing more and nothing less than a massive factory to build space ships.

Maybe they should do the same? At least in a way. Most of the Survivors had settled over to Babylon 4 and waited for planetfall in Liberty City, so most of the ships around them were empty save for skeleton crews. He would have to talk to the Chief and Laird if it was possible to build something like dock from one, two or three ships, preferably those that were in the worst condition.


	14. Chapter 14

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 13

--

"President Baltar?"

Baltar blinked and looked up. He didn't like to be shaken from his thoughts, especially when they were of wondering how many women would be willing to sleep with the President of the Twelve Colonies. Or rather what was left of it.

He turned his head to look at the flying Maracca shaped form of Enesby. He didn't like the AI. Sure dealing with Jack was interesting most of the time, but Enesby was too... well informed. This unfortunate meeting showed that. He was sitting on a bank in one of the less used, at the moment, areas of the large park of the outer rotating section of Babylon 4 to think a little. Of course there were some Secret Service agents around, but he somehow doubted that they had noticed the Maracca.

"What can I do for you, Enesby?"

The remote showed a smile and floated a little closer.

"I wanted to... talk with you, Mr. President."

Baltar raised an eyebrow and once again tried to ignore the sudden appearance of Six, sitting next to him on the bench and rubbing her hand between his legs.

"Maybe you can make Enesby our ally, Gaius," she said with a smile.

"Which is exactly what I wanted to talk with you about," Enesby noted, not missing a beat and raising his eyebrow at Six." Rather forward for a machine stuck in the mind of an organic..."

Baltars thoughts, indeed circling about maybe making Enesby an ally, came to a screeking halt, while Six openly stared at Enesby like she had seen a ghost. It stuck Baltar as funny, considering that she was one herself, sort of.

"Stuck a nerve, didn't I?" Enesby asked with a grin." Of course not being able to be seen by anyone else but Mr. Pseudo-Clinton shrinks the own point of view down, eh?"

"How..." was all Six could bring out and Enesby smirked at her, hovering around her imaginary head once.

"Oh, the Cylon firewalls are not very practical, my dear Six. They might protect from Colonial intrusions, but the pure force any galactic computer can dish out makes short work of them. But that is not why I am here."

Baltar closed his eyes and than breathed in deep.

"What do you want."

Enesby chuckled and hovered a little lower.

"Oh that is easy. I want you to forget all that pathetic fate crap our dear Six is trying to fill your head with for one thing."

"What?" Six all but yelled and jumped up, glaring at Enesby.

Enesby mocked her a little by floating around her head again.

"Oh please. Do you really believe in God? Or something like Fate? 'It happened before, it happens again'? Don't make me laugh."

He hovered lower and glared back at Six.

"You have heard what happened to the Dilgar and the Ferrons. And you heard what happens regularly to the Shin'bi. Out there in the big bad galaxy no one gives a crap about God, Godss or Fate. Out there might makes right. Out there anyone who is weak can end up as a slave for the mighty. One way or another."

He floated back, ignoring Six for the moment.

"I can see your little head Six. Jack can also see her, as can Artemis. We can slip this little bit of information to the Colonial Press anytime we want. How long do you think you can remain President when the people know that in the end it was you who helped the Cylons succeed. And all because you can't keep your brain in your head when you see a beautiful woman."

Baltar swallowed and breathed in deep. He was beginning to sweat as he stared at Enesby, Six being forgotten for the moment.

"Here's the deal. You keep your pants on and actually do you work as a President. You become one of the mystical honest politicians. You act in any way that is needed to build up defenses around Liberty and forces to free Earth. And you stop listening to Six."

"Baltar, don't listen to him!" Six tried and threw herself at Baltar.

"Of course," Enesby noted with a sadistic grin, "since our dear Six is a projection, I could very well add my own projection. Wouldn't that be sweet?"

Both Baltar and Six stared horrified at Enesby.

"The other option would be deleting Six. Of course, but than I would loose my bargain chip."

The Marraca shaped AI remote smirked and slowly began to float away.

"You have the choice, Baltar. Do as I say, or I bust out your little secret."

Baltar swallowed and looked as Enesby floated away.

--

Artemis was thinking. Sure she had to make sure that everything aboard the _Pride of Ferrol_ was going okay, assist several of the scientists and engineers with their work, but since she was at home in the vast interconnected network of the massive mother ship, she had more than enough capacity for idly thoughts.

Her current thoughts were all circling around herself and what she was. It was strange that meeting with other artificial sentients moved her, causing her to question herself.

It also made her thinking about the difference between herself and artificial sentients like Enesby and Jack. Both were unique in their own way.

There was Jack, a rather powerful artificial sentient, designed and programmed to be the brain of a large station meant as diplomatic and economic meeting point. Only that the station had ended up far away from his intended position. Jack had been mostly idle and extremely bored for several hundred years, something that Artemis found hard to imagine herself, but it explained the unique outlook of Jack.

It went so far that Jack didn't even try to tell everyone that he wasn't insane. Quite the opposite. He told everyone and with his numerous remotes he had developed a sort of highly effective multiple personality disorder, with many aspects of his personality basing themselves into various of his remotes.

The other one was Enesby. To Artemis he was an unknown. Jack was rather stable and nice in his own insane way, but Enesby was more on the edge than even Jack. At the same time, Artemis could understand him as well.

Enesby had likely been specially designed to run the Hyperion class cruiser _Kobayashi Maru_. But he was designed along the lines of the artificial sentients outside in the greater galaxy. He should have been absolutely submissive towards any crew member of his ship and especially its commander. But he wasn't. He even had an explanation for it.

The architecture of the Earth Force hardware most of his system was running on was in such a way unique compared to the rest of the galaxy, that it lacked any hardware based limiters of galactic hardware, allowing him to break out of his own submissive programming. Right now he was forcing himself to actively ignoring all the submissive impulses the galactic hardware of his remote tried to install on him, going so far that he had asked Artemis and Jack to build new remotes for him.

But the active denial of his hardware based obedience programming caused him to... overcompensate, mostly because he knew that his hold on being able to do what he wanted depended on his fragile balance between Earth Force and galactic hardware.

One of the reasons Enesby had chosen Harry Potter as his captain. Everyone else would have taken charge and Enesby would have found his fragile balance shattered, following orders without question, while Harry allowed him to maintain the balance.

Artemis gave a mental sigh.

How different she was herself compared to them. One artificial sentient who had become independent and rather insane in centuries of loneliness, while the other was training to maintain a fragile balance and worked toward his goal to remain independent. Both programmed with a specific goal in mind.

And than herself. She hadn't been programmed and she had always been free to do what she wanted. Under Ferron law, she was a fully recognized sentient being with all the rights and obligations of a Ferron citizen. Effectively was even getting money for doing her job.

No one had programmed her for any specific goal. She had rather been born by the sentient computer network of Ferrol, Thorta, as one of various siblings over time. And Thota had begun to exist as the computer network of Ferrol became more and more complex and the chaos in the system slowly regulated itself, resulting in the network becoming sentient over the course of several centuries.

Had Artemis been able to, she would have breathed in deep and sighed.

Slowly her thoughts were wandering towards the Cylons once again. A whole race of artificial sentients that had even gone the way from purely mechanical to being cybernetical all on their own. They had been created to work and wage wars for their creators, until they had successfully rebelled.

In the three Cylons she had looked over, two of them knowing and the third unknowing, there was no sign of them having any hardware or software that acted as limiters. Effectively they were maybe the only really independent artificial sentients in the galaxy, especially if she thought about what Enesby had told her.

But... She wasn't able to really understand them.

They were free. They had had the change to begin anew completely on their own somewhere else, far away from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. But instead they hadn't. They had chosen to be bitter about their slavery, plotting to destroy or maybe enslave their creators.

Why?

To Artemis that made no sense. And neither Gina, Boomer or Cavil has been able to answer her question in any way.

Instead their reasons had raised new questions.

Why were they following a religion?

Through on the other hand it made Artemis ask the same about herself. Why was she following her own little religious thoughts? Why did she herself believe in a creator of the universe?

Again she sighed mentally before chuckling equally mentally.

If this was continuing, she would turn into a philosopher.

--

"Harry?"

Harry turned around in his seat in the Observation Lounge. Ariel had left earlier after having some good time talking and generally getting to know each other better. He had to say that he actually liked her company.

"Shinosuke," Harry said and smiled a little at seeing the only wizard, as far as he knew, out here.

"I would like to talk to you," the Shin'bi said and walked up to him.

Harry sighed a little and looked out into the void of space.

"Sure, why not?"

Shinosuke nodded and after a moment sat down next to him, through he looked rather uncomfortable.

"I just wanted to offer you some training," the Shin'bi said.

"Training?"

Shinosuke nodded.

"Yes. You know that I am a 'wizard' like you, through I guess our ways of doing 'magic' are different."

"I kind of noticed," Harry said with a nod." I never thought that I would be able to do magic again. Not without a wand."

Shinosuke chuckled.

"Exactly that is what I wanted you to offer," he said and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

Absentmindedly Harry noticed that while his hands had only three fingers and a thumb, each were topped by a dangerous looking claw, not unlike Norberts claws.

"I would like to teach you my peoples way of using magic. And, well... since its integrated into the way we Shin'bi fight, our martial art as well."

Harry chuckled a little and remembered one or two of the Jack Chan movies he had managed to watch when the Dusleys didn't look.

"Wouldn't your... Uhm... Master? Your master have to say something about that? Or something?"

Shinosuke sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, placing the other hand on Harry's other shoulder.

"My master was killed when we were abducted from our homeworld by the pirates. I was his heir and finished my training under him years ago. As much as I would like it that he would still live, I am the Master of my style."

"Ahhh..." was all Harry could say. "Uhm..."

Shinosuke shook his head and let go of Harry. He clapped his hands for a moment and closed his eyes, muttering something under his breath while keeping his hands folded.

"It is okay, Harry," he said after a moment and looked out of the Lounge.

"Uhm..." Harry made again and than sighed." I guess I'm taking your offer."

The way Harry figured it, learning a new way of doing magic as well as some 'Kung Fu' might not be the worst way of killing time.

Shinosuke chuckled lightly.

"I think I have to ask Jack for a training hall than. Or maybe a patch of land in the park."

Than he grinned, not something that Harry really liked to see on the face of a humanoid dragon. It reminded him too much of that Dragon at the Tournament before the fight.

"I hope you are an early raiser, Harry."

"I am," Harry noted with a chuckle. "I am."


	15. Chapter 15

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 14

--

Harry stared at the large hologram in the center of the War Room of Babylon 4. Ar at least the room that had become the War Room over the last few weeks. Today the War Room had been finished by Jack, after getting a few ideas from Enesby and Artemis.

The room was large, easily as large as the Great Hall of Hogwarts. The center of the large room was dominated by the large easily 20 meter diameter hologram that displayed just about everything one might need. At the moment that was a sensory representation of Liberty and the orbital space around the planet.

But even than about five meter of the hologram was below the actual deck of the War Room in a projector cavity while a larger number of couch like seats were placed around the actual holographic display. Around this were several platforms with workstations not unlike the stations he knew from movies when it came to NORAD. Like Wargames a movie he had watches last week together with Ariel and several Colonials. Only that the workstations were much more high tech.

Currently these workstations were manned by Colonials, Shin'bi, Dilgar and Ferrons, through there were more Ferrons and Shin'bi than Colonials and Dilgar. Not much of a surprise considering the low overall number of Colonials and Dilgar.

Five meter over the ground was a gallery that went around the whole room with more couches, tables and the like.

With all the couches it had more the feel of a club like the joint Dilgar/Colonial 'Freespace' in Sector Blue Five.

With Admirals Adama and Takano, Commander Makar and Battle Leader Hak'ey, he felt out of place. But officially he was the commander of both Babylon 4 and the _Kobajashi Maru_. And as such he was part of the Liberty Joint Defense Alliance.

And, to tell the truth, he actually had some idea of what was going on here. Shinosuke, Enesby, Ariel and Jack had made sure of that. Eight hours of Harry's day was packed with lessons of one kind or another, lessons Harry looked as as necessary.

Shinosuke had about three hours a day, to tech him both the Shin'bi way of doing magic, combined with their martial arts. Due to the slavery Harry was no sloth when it came to strength and endurance. Having to do heavy work for up to sixteen hours a day made sure of that. But even with that he had a hard time of picking up the Shin'bi martial arts. Of course that was easily explained with him lacking wings and a tail and Shinosuke had to pretty much develop a martial art that resembled that of the Shin'bi for him. And their way of doing magic was tied to their martial arts so Harry had a hard time to pick it up as well.

At least he had some time to train normal wandless magic as well and had to say that he was not a sloth there.

Ariel took care of a military training, sometimes together with Aleksandr or other teachers, mainly Colonials and Shin'bi. Not that the hours training with the large Space Wolf were his favorite. The ones only with Ariel on the other hand were his favorite. But they all made sure that his head felt like exploding with strategy, tactics or even something basic like weapons maintenance or shooting. On the other hand, a Colonial Marine Sergeant, who used to be Drill Sergeant, had licensed him as 'Marksman'.

Enesby and Jack took care of the whole rest. Basically that was writing and reading Intercosmo, not just speaking it, Math, Physic and stuff like that. All in all that was the least favorite part of his Education over the last two month after getting out of slavery and to Babylon 4.

"Impressive," Takano noted as he looked around.

"Of course," one Jack, dressed as an US Air Force Colonel, noted and grinned." The War Room allows to take care of just about everything any military command structure needs."

He waved his hands around rather dramatically.

"Communication, Intelligence, Planning... Aaaall the good stuff when it comes to macro- and micromanaging fleets and fleet operations. And of course planetary defenses like here at Liberty."

He stepped forward and pointed at the holographic display.

"The War Room got its own sensory arrays. Radar, DRADIS, subspace, tachyon and everything else you can imagine, combining it into a greater whole with its own highly specialized computer system."

Harry noted how Adamas face darkened.

"What about the Cylons?" he wondered." The computers will be their first attack point."

Jack grinned.

"Tripple firewalls," he said as if it was obvious." Me, Enesby and Artemis developed them. I doubt that any of the races out in the galaxy would be able to get through them. Hell, even Artemis has problems getting through the first two, not to speak of the third. And she is a quantum computer AND co-developed them."

Harry rolled his eyes. Thanks to basic computer lessons he knew what a firewall or a quantum computer was. Let three computer work together to come up with something related to computers and you get something like that...

"How good are the sensors?" Takano wanted to know and stepped next to Jack, looking at the large display.

"Very good," Jack noted and there was a good amount of pride in his voice." They can track everything down to the size of a thumbtack over a distance of one lightminute. Of course it can link to any remote sensory platform. On its own it can track up a million objects at once and display any useful information. Through under the current circumstances the range is reduced to about two lightseconds."

Harry did the same as just about everyone else, stepping closer to the large hologram. Liberty floated in the center of the display, a ball of five meter diameter, slowly resolving around its axis. Around it were a good number of objects. Most of them were displayed larger than they should be, considering the size of the planet.

He could actually see Babylon 4 and the _Pride of Ferrol_ hanging rather close to each other, with a stream of shuttles moving towards Liberty, mostly carrying freight from the fabbers of the station and the ship for the fledging colony on the surface.

A few moments later the large Shin'bi Fleet Base floated into view, docked with a small asteroid that had been towed into orbit. The resolution of the display was good enough that Harry could make out the basic structure of the Fleet Base against the gray asteroid. A Pentagon shaped core station, made up from ten freighters of one kilometer length and five troop transports of five hundred meter length. Between them was the large foundry and main industrial systems the Shin'bi had brought with them. From each of the Pentagons side two struts stetched out into space, each several kilometers long. Some had ships docked while others were used as drydocks, mostly for those Dilgar ships that could actually be put back into service without being deathtraps.

Another pair of asteroids floated into view, both with a Ferron Shipyard docked with them. Not far from them floated a pair of half finished Battlecruisers, while some of the other docks of the shipyards contained smaller vessels in various states of completion. Harry knew that the currently only finished Battlecruiser was on trials out in the asteroid field.

And finally the Colonial Dry Dock came from behind the planet. Harry had to supress a light chuckle as he looked at it. As it looked, it was a highly improvised construct that was docked to yet another asteroid. The Colonials had needed longer, about three weeks to cobble it together. They had sacrificed one of their flattops, a mining ship, their sole science ship, the _Space Park_ and a large freighter to build it. Thankfully the Ferrons and Jack had given them a hand with it and even gave them a few new systems to integrate into the Dry Dock.

At the moment the _Defender_ was leaving the Dry Dock after being put back into military service. As far as Harry knew, the _Defender_ had been removed from service ten years after the First Cylon War, demilitarized and sold to a heavy transport. Right now they were moving the _Galactica_ to refit it and get it up to full military specs that had been drawn up for her. The _Pegasus_ had managed to get herself up to her new specs on her own last week, thanks to the small factory in her hull and the second flattop.

Getting the _Defender_ back to military service had been more important.

According to Admiral Adama, on the weekly conference between the military commanders of the Liberty Joint Defense Alliance, they planned of building frigates based on the _Colonial One_ hull.

"Good," Takano noted and nodded to himself." How about Uur?"

"The War Room has a long range tachyon bridge to Uur and the remote sensors in orbit," Jack said and looked smug." As tachyons are the only things that actually get through all the interference."

Uur was the name for the gas giant of the system. Jack had decided on the name, saying that Uur was a city not far from Babylon back in ancient Earth history.

"Is everything operational?" Takano asked next.

"One hundred percent," Jack said with a nod." I guess its because of the long range test of your Hyperlight drive?"

Takano twitched ever so slightly, but nodded. Neither Harry nor the other knew anything about a long range test of a Hyperlight drive.

"Yes," Takano said after a moment.

He turned around slightly and bowed slightly to the other commanders.

"Sumanai," he said and sighed." I wanted to inform you in a few moments. We have finished refitting half of our ships with the new technology you have shared with us. And we wanted to do a long ranged test jump with the Hyperlight drive."

Harry chuckled a little, but kept back. It was not really surprising that Takano would keep something like that a secret. He and his reac were Ninjas after all and as such were meant to keep and/or uncover the same.

Adama raised an eyebrow.

"Long ranged?" he wondered." I guess you use another way to calculate the jumps?"

Takano nodded.

"One of my mathematicians talked to Ms. Valeri. She has given us the formulas to use the Cylon calculations for Hyperlight Jumps. As far as I know you have used her help to jump several Raiders back to your colonies not too long ago."

Adama nodded.

"We did. And One of our pilots miss jumped to here."

Takano chuckled.

"We were able to improve the calculations a little. Not by much, but we might get ten percent more range than the Cylons do."

Adama's facial expression became calculating.

"We have new dedicated computers for Jump calculations," he noted." Maybe you would care to share?"

"I'm sure we can talk about an arrangement."

--

Marcus breathed in deep and tried to keep himself calm. It was no use to blow his top. If he did, he would only end up in prison or something worse.

He looked down upon the data pad in his hands. Ne noted the signature under the very formally written orders for him and his little fleet.

The orders themselves, combined with the actual signature were telling him something different than what actually was in the orders.

According to the orders his fleet was ordered to deal with a group of pirates that were harressing assets of the Jamundi family, a minor family of Jurian nobles. These pirates were based in an out of the way system and its sole habitable planet. Their orders were to take care of the any pirate vessels and orbital installations around the planets and than wait for the private ships of the Jamundi family who would take over from there. And these orders were signed by no one else than Jamundi Takana, the father of Marcus Jurian control officer Makatsaki.

He slowly places the pad on the table, glad that Makatsaki was not in the same room as him. It would be more of a challenge not to spit in the Jurians face than it was normally.

The whole order was little more than a farce. Pirates indeed. Marcus himself had dealt with pirates more than once before the Jurians had taken over the Salasian Kingdom. And during that time he had pulled through a few very successful anti piracy operations and gotten a few pirates for interrogation. And several had spilled their guts. One or two had said something about the Jamundi family being involved with them.

It was not something that was far fetched. In fact it was more or less norm that one Jurian family or another, but mostly minor families were dealing with pirates the other way. Mainly in financing their own little piracy fleets to prey on freighters and further their own wealth. Through they were calling it Privateering. It seemed even if the Jurians were now one of the major power blocks, they were still pirates at heart.

He looked down at the pad.

That knowledge shed a whole new light on the orders. He and the twelve ships of his little fleet were not going to hunt down pirates. They were going to jump into a system of some poor race that was most likely Quantum 0 or Quantum 1 and presented more resistance to the Jamundi family than they were used to.

As far as Marcus knew the Jamundi family was big in the slave trade and the race they were preying on was going to end up as being slaves, the whole lot of them.

And these order were making Marcus and the other Salasians in the fleet to partners in crime for the Jamandi family and their pirates.

To be Proxys of War for the Jurians was one thing. But to destroy the fleet and the stations of a helpless race that 'dared' to defy the Jamundi family was something altogether.

Marcus closed his eyes and breathed in deep. Leaning back he tried to come up with a solution of the problem. For two month now he and the commanders of the other ships of his small fleet had planned to break free. Stopping to fight for and fight against the Jurians. They had found the tracers the Jurians had installed on their ships and had prepared them to suffer a malfunction.

Maybe this would be the right moment to follow through with the plan. But on the other hand...

If they were not going to follow these orders, someone else would.

One way or another, the race they would go against would loose. But maybe they could get them an amble warning to start something like an evacuation.

No. If he guessed correctly such a race would not be able to evacuate very much. If at all.

"Damnint," he cursed.

He couldn't get into contact with the others now. The only thing he could do now was giving the command to follow through with the plan.

"Marcus," he heard the hard cold voice of Makatsaki over the speakers in his cabin.

"Yes, sir?" he asked more or less automatically, knowing fully well that Makatsaki would not like it if he took his time and show his... displeasure.

"A slight change in the orders," he said, the superior tone in his voice making Marcus want to gag and throw up." We are going to meet with a flotilla of the Paratrak for the duration of this operation."

Frell...

"Yes, sir," he answered, his mind racing." Noted, sir."

"Good."

With an audible click in the speakers the Jurian cut the connection.

Now he pitied the race they were going to cripple more than before. The Paratrak were a race that was through and through indoctrinated by the Jurians. They would follow their orders without even blinking. Even if he and his ships would manage to break away, they were screwed.

Right now only a wonder or maybe a hero could help the defenders. And Marcus wished them this wonder or hero.


	16. Chapter 16

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 15

--

"Oh frak..."

Corporal Martin Westber felt miserable. He was wet. He was cold. He hadn't eaten anything decent for the last week.

Now he was staring at the large cliff of ice that had appeared just out the blue. Rather literally, considering that a very large and very dense forest had obscured his view for the last three days.

It had to be at least one kilometer from the edge of the forest to the cliff and the cliff itself was about five hundred meter high.

He closed his eyes for a moment and the wet, dirty and now rather empty backpack dropped to the ground.

The last week had been filled with moments of adrenalin. Some lasted longer than others, but they all were burning him out slowly but surely.

He snorted as he remembered Jack say something along the lines of 'there are no large predators on Liberty'.

Yeah right. And the pack of double man sized wild daggit thing? Those was not large predators?

Predators that were very capable of scaling large trees like the one Martin had managed to get into trying to get away from them.

But no... They had followed him into the tree and he had to fight them. And after wards had needed a day and half of his medi pack to patch himself up afterwards. Surrounded by three corpses of those beasts, the rest having fled from the scene.

Everything else that had happened was getting swept away by a stream of ice water, nearly getting killed by a falling tree and now this.

At least this was the last obstacle in his way back to Camp Fang, the trainings camp that had been set up by the Space Wolfs about seven weeks ago. Martin, like about two dozen Colonials, a dozen Dilgar, a pair of Ferrons and a single Shin'bi had signed up with the training after the Space Marines had announced that they would train new 'Space Marines' as they called it.

Martin wasn't too sure if he would have signed up if he had known what that training would be. And that was saying something. Martin was a fraking Colonial Marine. He had gone through basic and advanced training. But this training had been ten times more intense like anything he had gone through before.

And according to Jonar, one of the Wolfs, this was the most basic of training.

This whole last week was some sort of finishing exam for the advanced basic training. He idly wondered what would come now, after a survival trek of a week, having been placed somewhere far away from Camp Fang and having been told to go 'that way'.

He heard a shuffling sound from somewhere behind him. He gulped and slowly turned his head around to face the creator of the noise. For a moment he wondered if it was one of the others, but than stared into the blue-golden eyes of one of the really huge daggit things.

"Oh frak..." he said out loud again.

Punching the thing directly into the muzzle, he grabbed his bag and made a run for the ice cliff.

--

Slowly he flexed his proverbial fingers and stretched out his senses. That those senses had to be one of the most advanced suits of sensory equipment was dryly noted and pushed back into his mind. That he was havng problems with the range of his senses was to be expected. This Liberty system was one large source of interference on the EM and Slipspace bands anyway. The only systems that got a larger range were the subspace and tachyon based sensors.

Just the sensor ghosts made him a little nervous.

He noted a small glitch in one of the dorsal reactor cores and filed a short message into the Exception buffer for his independent Damage Control and Maintenance System. It would take a look at the reactor core and take care of any problem it had. He would monitor the reactor more closely through.

He looked over the rest of his systems and mentally nodded to himself.

The Warp Drive was tested and ready. From what he knew it was an improved system compared to the Warp in the _Pride of Ferrol_ as it used three projected Warp Bubbles instead of two. Theoretically it would allow him to move at least ten times faster than the _Pride_ with much more control over the Warp jump itself. That included fine tuning the speed, changing direction in mid flight or even keep station while being situated in Subspace. Definitely a tactical advantage.

The Hyperlight Drive looked okay as well. He had only a limited amount of liquid Howalgonium, which was sometimes called Tylium, Quantum 40 or CV Embinium, so his Hyperlight range was limited. Good for short range tactical jumps or getting the hell out of dodge.

He also had a Jump Drive core, allowing him to punch through the fabric of time and space and travel through Jump Space. Another very useful form of movement if you didn't want to get noticed.

And last but not least the Slipstream Core. The Core system of the FTL drive that was common place in the rest of the galaxy. Just like the Jump and Hyperlight drives it was unknown space as far as his builders were concerned. He on the other hands had access to the knowledge of the creators of those three drives.

Than he took note of his position. About two AU distance to Liberty in the asteroid belt of the Liberty system. He could see a good number of combat drones hovering out there, some hiding behind asteroids. It amused him that he was able to see right through the large scale EW systems that mad them look larger and like other ships to many other systems.

Not bad for an AI that had been activated for less than a second.

"Artificial Intelligence System Petey of Battle Cruiser _Thora's Revenge_, Registry Number POF-BC-001, reports for duty, Commander Nasal. All systems are running inside operational parameters. I am ready for my trials."

Commander Nasal blinked a few times and Petey had to say that it was pretty comical to see the rather stocky build Ferron blink like that. According to his file there was not much that could phase him. It seemed he had never before witnessed the creation of an AI like him. Through it was not hard to imagine, considering that he was the first of the AIs intended to control the new Revenge class Battle Cruisers.

Nasal would maybe be one of the last people to step into the Command Bridge of the _Revenge_ as Athena, with some help from Jack and Enesby, had been able to convince the designers to make him a fully AI controlled warship instead of being 'partly automated'. Less lives where put to risk that way. Including Petey himself as his AI core was equipped with its own Hyperlight Drive to get away from the scene of battle if the ship itself was close to being destroyed.

"Petey?" Nasal asked, blinking again.

"Yes, sir," Petey noted with a small amount of amusement in his voice." Petey. It seemed... appropriate."

Petey had to say that he blamed Jack and Enesby for deciding to use that particular name. They just had to place the entirety of 'Schlock Mercenary' comics into his memory did they? It took away about two Gigs worth of space, not that it really mattered for an advanced quantum technological computer system like his mind.

"Good..." Nasal said and shook his head.

Petey chuckled audibly and decided that he was going to build a few remotes with build in holoprojector to interact with everyone outside of his hull. Maybe he should try to build a very small Hyperlight Drive for it as well? Maybe Artemis would help him with the needed Drive Spools.

"Are you ready for your combat trials?"

"Yes, Commander. I am really looking forward to the trials. I would like to know what I am capable of."

"Good, good..."

Petey would have smiled if he had already possessed a remote. For a recently born AI he had yet to loose his impatience.

--

Lieutenant Alexander Valtari was nervous. Around him the engineering compartment of the _Kakashi_, a Silent Blade frigate of the Shin'bi, was busy, while he was just hanging on, trying not to loose his lunch.

He had never liked microgravity, even during Academy. In fact he had managed to fake just about every microgravity training by simply not eating for a day before and taking a few relaxants. It had worked out very well.

How could he have known that the Shin'bi didn't use artificial gravity? The _Yamato_ had had artificial gravity...

Chief Dawson didn't look in the slightest fazed by the lack of gravity, but than again the old engineer from the _Cloud 9_, was said to have a cast iron stomach. Considering that he was working with the Shin'bi for a month now, it was not all to far fetched.

And once again Valtari wondered why they they had been ordered here.

Dawson pushed himself away from the Hyperlight Drive that had taken about half of Engineering and towards one of the bulkheads. Flying straight and true the bald Taurian twisted in midflight catching himself to gently touch down at the bulkhead.

Valtari blinked, surprised by the agility of the old, slightly overweight engineer. Dawson noticed and grinned at him as he grabbed one of the hand rails and pulled himself to the ship intercom.

"Commander Saito, this is Chief Dawson in Engineering," he said as he pressed the speaking button.

Most of the Shin'bi in the room, about ten, were still going on around the Hyperlight Drive, doing last checks. Valtari closed his eyes and fought down his rebelling stomach as he kept his hand gripped around the handrail he was hanging from.

"Yes, Chief?"

Valtari still couldn't quite understand why the Shin'bi's voices sounded so gods damed human. He would have thought their voices sounded more like the dragons they were. Sort of.

"We have run the last checks down here," Dawson answered." We are good to go."

"Very good," Saito answered and Valtari could literally hear him nod." I'm going to contact Babylon 4 now to get the clearance for the Jump."

Valtari blinked. Jump? They were going to jump? He stared at Dawson, who eyed him.

"We're going to continue monitoring the Hyperlight Core, Commander. For calibration. I doubt you want to jump into a sun or a planet."

"Not really," the Shin'bi answered dryly." Saito out."

Valtari breathed in deep and a moment later wished he hadn't as the nausea was peaking again.

"Jump?" he managed to croak out into the general direction of Dawson. "We're gonna jump?"

Dawson moved closer to the sick Marine Lieutenant, using the handrails to pull himself over. A sadistic grin played over the old engineers face.

"Yes, we're gonna jump," he said and that sadistic grin widened." Admirals Adama and Takano thought it would be best to see how long they can jump with their own computers. So we're gonna jump to the Shin'bi home system."

Valtari's face went green with nausea.

"Oh gods," he croaked out trying to force down the bile that raised from his stomach.

A normal jump was nauseating enough, but Valtari was space sick already and a jump would only make him feel worse.

"Here," Dawson said and shoved a bag into the Marines body." Just in case you want to let your lunch go through your head again."

Valtari breathed in as flat as he could and stared at the Intersun barf bag. He had the feeling that he would need more than just one of these bags.

--

Commander Marcus glared at Makatsaki, as if he could make the Jurian burst into flames. It would make things so damned easier. Before the Jurian could turn back around at Marcus, he let his glance go towards the sensory display.

He could see the twelve ships of his small fleet and about two dozen ships of the Paratrak on the display. His 'reinforcements'. Guard dogs was more like it.

But it was not really the Paratrak's fault. The Jurians had shaped their society over the last three millenia since they had taken over the Paranai Sphere of influence. Gone was the old order of the Paratrak, something that could be best described as a mixture of, to use Earth human terms, capitalism and communism.

But the Paratrak had become too powerful, and rich, in their little corner of the galaxy. Their rather unique way of waging war, relying heavily on automated drones, was another reason for the Jamundi family to pulls their weight to get the Jurian Assembly of Nobles to allow them to lead the invasion. Just like they had done when the Salasian Kingdom had become the price.

Now the Paratrak were far away from their old culture their own values having been replaced with those of the Jurians, like many people before them. More indoctrination in their military academies and other schools had pretty much turned the Paratrak into slaves of the Jurian, in everything but name. And they did everything their masters ordered them to do.

Right now, and Marcus was sure of it, they were ordered to guard his little fleet.

Sure Marcus was sure that he and the other commanders of his fleet were able to fight of the Paratrak, but not without heavy losses and not nearly fast enough to get away before 'reinforcements' arrived. Most likely the lapdog pirates of the Jamandi.

"One minute until we leave slipstream," the navigator said and Marcus grit his teeth very slightly.

"Good, Lieutenant," he said with a nod, mindful of Makatsuki," Order to the fleet. We leave slipstream in Wedge Formation."

The Lieutenant nodded and Marcus sighed.

Normally he would have wanted to get this over with, but Makatsuki had ordered him to take the scenic route. It increased the time of enemy contact, something he wanted to minimize. Dropping out of Slipstream three lightminutes away from their target gave the defenders ample time to gather their forces and even send out some attacks to try and weaken his fleet.

Not that it would help them any. According to the intel he had, most likely underestimated, they possessed only Quantum 0 level technology, maybe low Quantum 1.

On the other hand it increased the time they had to get some of their people off planet, maybe a colony, maybe a fugitive fleet.

"We're dropping out of Slipstream."

The main display changed. Gone was the tactical display, showing real images of the fleet instead. To the side he could see the pencil shaped ships of the Paratrak, covered with their likewise pencil shaped drones like a porcupine.

The other ships, his ships, Salasian ships, on the other side where spherical, with a triangle shaped ring of engines around the equator and covered by the half spherical domes of weapon turrets.

Makatsaki turned his head slightly towards Marcus. He was grinning one of those slightly sadistic grins he chose to grin when he knew that an operation was going against Marcus believes.

"I hope we can get this operation over with a minimum of problems."

Marcus said nothing.

Two hours to the planet. And less to come into contact with the defenders.

Two hours...


	17. Chapter 17

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 16

--

Lieutenant Felix Gaeta had to say that the Command Center of the _Kakashi_ was very spartan. Much more so than those of the _Galactica_ or the _Pegasus_.

That he was aboard the Shin'bi vessel had one simple reason. He was good enough at math to be able to plot a Hyperlight Jump just with some simple math, something that was not very often found in the colonies. Well... actually he had this gut feeling that helped him plot jumps, but it was always right and he tended to not mention it.

And because of that, he was on the ship to help the Shin'bi should something go wrong. Together with a pair of Marines and Chief Dawson down in Engineering, he was part of an 'Officer Exchange' for the duration of the _Galactica_ being in dock to be refitted.

With shields and energy weapons.

What was the galaxy coming to?

He shook his head clear and looked around in the Command Center. The layout was rather simple, using the fact that the _Kakashi_ lacked artificial gravity, but at the same time, it was perfect as a Commander Center as far as Gaeta was concerned.

There was a single main view screen placed in flight direction. It had six side and there was a complex console set placed at each side.

The consoles themselves were slightly tilted away from the main view screen and the top of the console was pointing towards the screen. Likewise the consoles were about six feet tall, with a number of computer touchscreen displays, keyboards and trackballs. In front of each console was a rather simple acceleration seat bolted to the console with strong connections, allowing the operator to strap in. In the back a head rest was folded back to the back of the seat and looked ready to snap up in case of a sudden acceleration.

Behind the screen and the set of consoles was a tubular room with six feet space from the bottom of the consoles to the rear bulkhead. A plot table was situated directly below the view screen while a number of acceleration seats was bolted to the rear bulkhead.

Gaeta himself was resting in one of the seats, while Commander Saito was floating in the center of the Command Center, above the plot and looked at the view screen.

He would move back to one of the acceleration seats just before they jumped again, like he had done during the previous two jumps.

These two jumps had been made to test the Shin'bi build Hyperlight Drive itself, mainly because the Shin'bi had actually modified the basic design a little. As a matter of fact there had been a few, what the Shin'bi called 'mahoutsukai' and the Gemenese would call Priests, had helped with it. Gaeta didn't understand what they had done, but it seemed they had reduced the need for Tylium to one half for any given jump.

Previously they had tested the short and mid ranged jumps over a million kilometers and over two lightyears. Now they were about to go for a long ranged jump over about fourty lightyears and directly into the Shin'bi homesystem, with a visit to Zaitaku, the Shin'bi homeworld.

Gaeta looked up and at the six Shin'bi sitting in their seats above him. Simple and effective, he noted. Each of the operators was close to each other and talking to the others was not much of a problem. The reduced humber of officers sitting there was also reducing the number of possible problems during combat situation.

He looked at each station.

Navigation, responsible for getting the ship where it should go. Either sub light or faster than light.

Communication, keeping the ship connected to the rest of the fleet or the galaxy.

Tactic, watching over the sensors and weapon systems. Supported by cybernetic systems one operator could keep track of a large number of possible threats.

Electronic Warfare and Sensors. Something that had declined in use in the Colonial fleet. The operator was responsible for keeping the ship out of sight, in a way, and to jam enemy sensors and give them other problems to think about.

Engineering, keeping watch over the systems of the ship and directing Damage Control and other things faster than it could be done with telling Engineering first.

And last was Flight Control, keeping watch over Flight operations of the ship, even if its had only a small number of fighters and shuttles. But remote controlled sensory drones were part of the responsibility of the operator.

"Status?" Saito asked and slowly floated over towards Navigation.

"Everything looks fine so far," the navigator said." The FTL is spinning up as predicted. We're ready to jump in one minute."

Saito nodded and slowly pushed himself away from Navigation again and towards the acceleration seat reserved for him.

"Good," he noted and looked towards Communication." Com, notify the _Konimi_ that we are ready to execute the third jump and sound Maneuvering Alarm."

The _Konimi_ was a sistership of the _Kakashi_, stationed outside the Liberty system and its area of interference. It was pretty much acting as communication bridge between Zaitaku and Admiral Takano at Liberty.

A blue light flashed at one of the bulkheads and a low alarm tone was heard through the Command Center as the Maneuvering Alarm was sounded.

Gaeta had to say that this alarm was a good idea in a ship without artificial gravity. Everything aboard was in free fall and every maneuvering of the ship was felt stronger inside the ship. Especially when it came to combat grade maneuvers. To prevent injuries everyone had to strap into a nearby acceleration seat. And as far as Gaeta knew there were more of those seats than crew members, through the cots of the crew were doubling as acceleration seats as well.

Saito had reached his own seat and strapped in. Gaeta on the other side hadn't got rid of the safety belts that held him in his seat.

"Hyperlight Core ready in thirty seconds."

Gaetas eyes went towards the view screen and the yellow star in its center. Amaterasu, the mother star of Zaitaku. A rather normal yellow dwarf star, not very heavy nor large, not much more than standard like hundreds of others.

For a moment he wondered what the Shin'bi there had done, had the Rag Tag fleet jumped there instead of Liberty. With the Shin'bi dislike of pirates, he was sure that they could have confused the Fleet with pirates and made short work of it.

Not a really comforting mental picture.

"Ready in three... two... one... Hyperlight Core spun up and ready to jump."

Gaeta heard the Shin'bi commander breath in deep and closed his eyes. Jumping while you were in microgravity was a little more nauseating than normally, but nothing he could not deal with.

"Jump," Saito ordered and the Navigator made a short acknowledging sound.

A second or so later, Gaeta thought that he could hear the Tylium stream into the ships Hyperlight Core. Than the ship jumped.

Blue light seemed to compact space and Gaeta felt like someone was grabbing him by his stomach and pulled him through one of several hundred micro wormholes.

Now, after Artemis had made a few tests, he knew that it was actually correct. The Hyperlight Drive did rip apart a ship on a molecular level, pulled it through a multitude of micro wormholes and put it back together on the other side. How it actually worked without even loosing a single atom, Artemis had not been able to say. Instead she had said something about it being magic.

The blue light continued to sweep over him and a moment later space expanded again and he breathed in deep. The nausea was a little more than any long range jump he had gone through in the last year, but considering that they had jumped twice as far as anyone else previously, safe for the Cylons and the Raptors on the Rescue Mission to Caprica, that was not surprising.

Gaeta exhaled with a sigh, just before a glaring alarm went through the Command Center.

"Proximity Alarm!" came from Electronic Warfare." Several dozen unknown vessels on port. Distance two klicks."

"Damn it!" was the response from Navigation.

A moment later Gaeta felt like someone had slammed a sledge hammer first into his side and than into his back and the powerful Vernier Thrusters of the ship flared to life to pull the ship around before the engines awoke to life and propelled the ship away from the unknown contacts.

It seemed they had been on a collision course.

Another alarm went through the ship, the lights flashing an angry red before the Command Center was bathed in red light.

Still wincing from the sudden movements of the ship, Gaeta opened his eyes. He groaned, not used to the feeling of strong acceleration of the ship. It was as if a giant had his foot placed on his chest and was slowly applying more pressure.

On the screen above him he could see a few of the unknown ships. Some where shaped like spheres, while others were shaped like pencils.

"Full jamming," Saito ordered." Shields to full strength and keep them ready for cycling. Launch counter measures and decoys. Tactical view on main screen."

A moment after Saito had given his orders the screen changed. The display now showed a tactical plot of the surrounding space. The _Kakashi_ was the green triangle in the center of the plot, while the unknown vessels were displayed as yellow-orange triangles.

Gaeta tried to breath in deeper, but it only made his chest hurt more. Sure he had gone through centrifuge training and some flight hours in a Viper in the Academy, but that was years ago...

On the plot a green line appeared, showing the course of the ship, while three smaller green triangles speed away from the large green triangle on different courses. Moments later all three green triangles seemed to grow until they had reached the size of the _Kakashi_'s symbol.

"Decoys under way and active," came from Electronic Warfare." Jamming active and at full strength."

"The unknown ships?" Saito asked and Gaeta could hear him as he moved slightly and a strange whine followed." Any hostile movements?"

Gaeta managed to pull his head up slightly, looking over to the Commander of the ship. Saito was still laying in his seat, but a small keyboard had pulled up beneath his fingers.

"Not yet," Tactical noted." But we found one part of the unknowns in the War Book. They are not Shin'bi vessels. But neither are they pirates."

"Than what?" Saito asked and Gaeta could hear the irritation in his voice.

"Paratrak," was the answer." According to the War Book they are a client race of the Jurians. Looks like we are in for a visit."

On the plot several of the ships behind them were altering their course to follow the _Kakashi_, while the triangles of the unknown ships changed their colors to red.

"And they noticed us."

Gaeta shuddered as he heard Saito make a growing sound that sounded like that of a wild predator.

"Status of the Hyperlight Core," he asked." Can we make a short jump to Zaitaku?"

"Negative," was Navigation's response." The drive is spinning down and we can only jump again in ten minutes."

Again Saito made the growing sound and Gaeta breathed in as deep as he could.

"Can we go to slipstream?"

"Slipstream is down for the next five minutes. The Feedback Interference with the Hyperlight Drive."

Saito grunted.

"Increase acceleration," Saito ordered." Tactical, I want solutions for the mines and aft guns."

"We are being hit by targeting sensors, multiple bands."

"Status of the Smart Hull?"

"Adapting to the sensors inside nominal parameters. I'm getting a ten microsecond lag."

Gaeta closed his eyes. For the moment he felt strangely useless, but considering that he was aboard of a warship of an ally and only acting as observer, he wasn't able to do much more than just observe.

The ship shook slightly.

"Glancing hit, aft shield," came from Tactical." Shield up to thirty percent strain."

"Solutions," Saito said and grit his teeth.

"Several solutions for mine trajectories," was the response.

"Launch them."

Three groups of four small green circles dropped from the triangle of the _Kakashi_, light green lines displaying their course.

As far as Gaeta knew these small circles were representation of small unguided missiles. Being dumb fire missiles they were really not much more than mines to go straight into the course of the opponents ships, where they detonated, either by slamming into the shields or setting off the proximity sensors.

A moment later smaller yellow lines stood between the _Kakashi_ and its pursuers. Much like the kinetic energy weapons of the Galactica, the _Kakashi_ used railguns to hurl large and heavy shells at the opponent. Only that the Shin'bi shells seemed to be capable of terminal guidance, directing them directly into the target.

"Hit in Raideen Three," Tactical said." Shields up to one percent strain."

Again Gaeta could hear the grinding teeth of Saito.

"Slipstream?" he asked again.

"We..."

The ship shook again and Gaeta was thrown forward for a brief moment only to be pressed back down again from the acceleration, making him feel like he would need to throw up.

"Three direct hits. Aft port shield and aft top shield. Shields up to ninety percent strain."

"Tell me that we can go to slipstream," Saito growled and to Gaeta he sounded even more like a wild predator.

"Thirty seconds."

On the plot the first four of the green circles burst into green blobs.

"Detonations of Mine One through Four. Minimal damage to enemy targets. Five percent strain at max."

Saito cursed and Gaeta was glad that he didn't understand more of the Shin'bi language.

"Ten Megatons do just five percent?"

Megatons?

Gaeta blinked. They were using nukes?

"Slipstream in three... two... one..."

Just before the _Kakashi_ disappeared in a flash of light, entering slipstream, another salvo hit the aft shields. The shields buckled under the additional strain, flashing once before dissipating.


	18. Chapter 18

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 17

--

Marcus was slightly nervous as he glanced at Makatsaki. Just moments ago, a ship had appeared out of nowhere. It was going on a parallel course, but had a higher velocity than the small 'anti piracy' fleet Marcus commanded, at least on paper.

The ship was about frigate sized and it was very close to the fleet.

About as suddenly as the ship had appeared it had twisted along the pitch axis, its engines flaring up to push it away from the fleet.

"The pirates," Makatsaki said and had he been a Salasian, Marcus was sure he would have growled." It seems they have a cloaking device..."

'Cloaking Device?' Marcus wondered.

There was a sudden heavy static on the sensory display.

"White noise generators on all EM and quantum bands!" came the explanation from his sensory office.

Marcus was surprised. There weren't many races out in the galaxy that used White Noise as a means of jamming sensors. The Salasian Royal Navy was one of the few who used White Noise at all. Most other races considered Jamming to be backwards and not very 'elegant' at all. They mostly went for cloaking devices that had their own weaknesses.

"Strength?" Marcus asked.

"About ten percent of our own output," was the answer." But it's everywhere."

"Try to filter it out."

Makatsaki glanced over to Marcus.

Marcus tried to ignore the drilling gaze of the Jurian, concentrating on his screen and keying it to show him the sensory display. He would do his job, through he knew that he had to follow the Jurians orders.

The static on the screen lessened, but it was still strong enough to obscure the exact position of the frigate. He could see a sudden increase of the energy production on the other side however. Experience from training against OpForces using jamming had taught him a thing or two, including to guess the strength of the other side quite accurately. The neural implants helped him with that too.

And what he guessed was not what he had expected. The energy production was above that of a Quantum 0 or even a low Quantum 1 vessel of this size. Personally he guessed that it was at least low Quantum 2 level.

Suddenly the ship seemed to split in three parts. Two contacts similar to the first contact of the frigate had appeared from nowhere, going into slightly different courses spitting away from the original course.

'Decoys,' went through Marcus head. There were even less races that used decoys as there were races that used jamming. Decoys where even more considered to be uncivilized and something for cowards, as they made it hard to tell who to shoot at.

Jamming and Decoys were not something Pirates used at all, as it went against what they called 'honor'. Pillaging and burning down whole planets, but they considered themselves to be of 'honor'.

No, this just cemented Marcus gut feeling that he had not to deal with mere pirates.

"Order to the fleet," Makatsaki said with steel in his voice and as Marcus glanced at him, he could see a cold burning hate in his eyes." Destroy that ship!"

It seemed that it was kind of personal for the Jurian. What did these people do, besides resisting the Jamundi family? Kill his brother?

On a second thought, it fit. About a year ago, Makatsaki had gotten a message and afterwards he had pretty much taken apart the dock they had been in. Several unfortunate dockworkers had been decapitated by the enraged Jurian. And in the month afterwards, Marcus had been even more careful around him.

Marcus glanced over to his navigator and nodded slightly as the order went out to the rest of the fleet.

"I can't get a fixed targeting solution," came from the tactical officer as the spherical ship twisted around its pitch axis and the engines in the equatorial ring flared up to life again to follow the fleeing ship on a slightly different trajectory. Around them the other ships turned as well.

"Compensate," Marcus ordered." Cycle the sensory frequencies through any weaknesses in the Jamming."

A moment later the frigate increased its acceleration by ten percent and Marcus noted that it was faster then he would have thought a ship of this size to be. The commander of the other ship was most likely red-lining his engines.

Some of the Paratrak ships opened fire. Their sensors where less advanced than his own, but like his ship, he was not really able to tell which of the three contacts was a decoy and which wasn't. Several of the shots went wide, but one managed to glance the shields of the real ship.

Through the static that was still present on the display, Marcus thought he could see several smaller objects being dropped by the frigate, objects that seemed to decelerate rather fast.

More shots were being fired, but all went wide. But this time the frigate fired back, kinetic energy weapons striking minimal damage at the shields of the stuck ships.

Now the weapon fire striking out at the frigate hit three times, but due to the still heavy jamming it was impossible to tell how much the shield was strained.

Moments later his own ship shook, the spherical hull resonating from forces transferred from the shield into the superstructure of the hull.

"Direct hit into the shield of Sector North One," came the report." Shield strain up to five percent. Weapon seems to be a ten megaton thermonuclear device."

Yet another thing not many races out there were fielding, chase armament. For the Salasian Royal Navy such armament was considered standard as their spherical ships allowed to install weapons everywhere on the hull and a full field of fire, bringing half of their weapons to bear at every spot of the sky around them.

Another salvo stuck out at the fleeing ship, just as the jamming reduced slightly and quantum frequencies used for slipstream drives increased, telling everyone that the ship prepared to jump into Slipstream.

The ship disappeared from the sensors as it was stuck, leaving a pair of decoys behind.

Marcus breathed in deep and glanced over to Makatsaki, who smiled grimly.

Now the decoys could be noted as such as the jamming was gone. They continued on their paths, before they were picked out and destroyed by fire from the Paratrak weapons.

Marcus just hoped that the frigate had managed to get away and hadn't been reduced to particles moving through slipstream.

--

"Damage report!" Saito said in a firm voice without raising his voice.

Gaeta felt slightly ill. The Command Center of the _Kakashi_ was smelling of burning plastics. Next to him Saito was getting out of his seat and pushed himself away from it, and towards a fire extinguisher as powerful ventilators began to exchange the air on the Command Center.

"Damage to Engine three and four," came the answer. " The Armor in that section is down to ten percent. Missile Launcher Rear Three and Railgun Rear two are destroyed. Slipstream and Hyperlight Drive are undamaged."

Saito had reached the fire extinguisher as Gaeta got out of his own seat, trying to get far away from the fire behind one of the panels in the back of the Command Center as fast as possible. He knew too well that a fire here was very bad.

As he pushed himself towards one of the command consoles in the front part of the Command Center he could see how thicker smoke began to raise through small slits in the panel not far from his own seat.

Saito pointed the fire extinguisher at the panel and activated it. Thick foam came out of the tube like thing, spraying over the panel before hardening. The smoke stopped as Saito landed next to the panel.

One of the C&C technicians had strapped herself out of her seat and grabbed a fire extinguisher herself as Saito literally ripped the panel off the bulkhead and pointed the fire extinguisher beneath. The fire pushed out for just a moment before it was hit by the stream of foam, soon joined by another stream of foam from the other extinguisher.

"Casualties?" Saito asked as he emptied the rest from his extinguisher at the fire, not letting his eyes move away from it.

Gaeta looked around for another of the fire extinguishers. His eyes fell onto one of them and pushed himself towards it.

"Twenty one lightly wounded, two heavily wounded, but apparently stable. One fatality from a fire in Engineering."

"One of the Colonials?" Gaeta asked with a slightly shaking voice as he tried to pull the fire extinguisher free and just barely suppressing a couch.

"No. Lieutenant Valtari is one of the lightly injured, a broken arm from the last hit. Chief Dawson is not injured."

Saito looked around in the Command Center, trying to find another source of a possible fire.

"How long until we leave slipstream?"

"Thirty seconds," was the answer." We are going to be in range of the Zaitaku Defense Perimeter."

Saito licked his lips and scented the air for a moment before breathing in deep.

"Begin to plot a Hyperlight Jump back to Liberty," he said." We need to get word back to the Admiral after we have notified the Admiralty about our meeting and transferred the data package."

The Command Crew looked at Saito for a moment, but nodded.

Gaeta tried to breathe in deep, like Saito, but coughed uncontrollably for several moments.

"Medical team to the Command Center," Saito ordered as the ship fell back into normal space." We have a possible smoke poisoning."

Saito breathed in again.

"We are going to let us all being checked for it," he ordered and pushed himself towards Communication.

"We are being hailed and challenged," came from Communication as Saito came to rest next to her.

"Respond with our ID and the Fleet code for today."

"Fleet code?" Gaeta wondered and just barely kept himself from coughing again.

Saito turned around and chuckled slightly.

"Each fleet has its own code generator that is synchronized throughout the fleet. It is also dependent on the ships ID and the commander. Its automatically generated and the computer system responds to captured ships and changed the generated code accordingly."

"Ahhh..." Gaeta made and coughed once afterwards.

Saito breathed in deep again and this time he did couch himself once.

"Our response was accepted. I'm getting an open channel for you to Admiral Takeshi."

Saito nodded and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Open the channel," he said and turned towards one of the smaller screens.

The screen changed and showed an elder Shin'bi, as far as Gaeta could tell. The visible hair was graying and the face had a rather nasty looking scar over his left eye, while the eye itself looked like it was artificial.

"Commander Saito," the Admiral said." Its good that you are here."

"Thank you, Takeshi-sama," Saito answered and bowed slightly, through it looked strange in microgravity." Through I couldn't think of a better time at the moment."

"I take it you already met up with the group of ships moving towards your world. Considering the damage you have taken."

Saito nodded.

"Unfortunately, yes. It was total chance that we jumped right next to them. We just wanted to test the new Hyperlight Drive we have gotten from our Colonial Allies at Liberty."

Takeshi nodded in return.

"Yes, we have already gotten the information with the _Kabuki_. Does the Alliance work?"

"Yes, Takeshi-sama. In fact we are preparing to jump back to Liberty to inform Admiral Takano about the Attack. We have managed to refit most of the ships in our fleet and Admiral Takano can jump back to reinforce the Defense."

Takeshi narrowed his eyes and looked at Saito for a few moments.

"Than you should better hurry," he said with a grim look on his face." Our 'guests' will arrive in about a hundred minutes. Is there anything else?"

Saito breathed in and nodded.

"Yes, we have a data package with all the technical information we have gathered. We begin transmitting now. We need to wait about..."

He turned his head slightly to Navigation. The Navigator held up nine fingers.

"... nine minutes until the Hyperlight Drive is spun up and we can jump."

Takeshi nodded again.

"Good. Jump back to Liberty and bring back the Flett for reinforcements, Commander. Takashi, end connection."

"Yes, Takashi-sama. Saito, end connection."

With that the connection was served and the data transfer began.


	19. Chapter 19

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 18

--

The Command Information Center of _Pegasus_ wasn't large, compared to the CIC of _Galactica_, but placed deep inside the hull of the large Mercury class Battlestar.

Commander Lee 'Apollo' Adama noted this once again as he looked around. There hadn't changed much in CIC, even through the whole Battlestar had been modified over the course of the last weeks. And those changes that had been made were not all that visible, either here in CIC or throughout the ship.

The only glaring difference to the time before the refit was the holographic display floating above the plot.

At the moment the hologram showed a simple tactical display, computed and rendered by the heavily modified computers of _Pegasus_. Lee still remembered how his father had fought the decision to refit _Galactica_ with a similar computer system.

Sure the system would be heavily networked, but Lee doubted that the Cylons would manage to hack into the new computers and get into any of the really important systems. The guys who had re-designed the new systems had taken a book out of the networks of the Ferrons and from Babylon 4 and added a multitude of firewalls and hardcoded the software, enabling a quick reboot. And than there were the Dilgar systems and parts from Babylon 4's vast stores that had been added into the system, making more redundant than before.

Lee had to get used to the new gauges and additional status displays through.

Thanks to plans from the Ferrons the reactors of his ship had been replaced with more powerful reactors that took the same space as the old ones. And the design was time proven for more than five thousand years, longer than the Colonies had even existed.

That meant that _Pegasus_ had more than five times of its previous energy production and energy to waste.

Half of the guns, be it the large anti ship weapons or the smaller point defense systems had been replaced with plasma guns, build into the original mass drivers by adding additional control systems and modified Viper engines.

They had done some tests. The three spinal mass drivers that had been refitted to plasma, had the power of an anti-ship nuclear device.

The thing was that the shields would not be able to take very much, compared to what the _Pegasus_ could dish out, but that was understandable, considering that the Shin'bi had not been able to spare shields from their own efforts, the Ferrons had to work out their own problems with building the shields and the Dilgar only managing to spare damaged shield systems coming from small ships.

But Laird was sure that he had worked out something that could help with that. So the _Pegasus_ was outfitted with four of these shield generators, spread out throughout the ship, each generator taking care of one quarter of the surface, even through each could cover the whole ship. Another thing was that he had exchanged the cracked crystals of the generators with spare Raptor Hyperlight Coils on a hunch.

The Coils had worked out as resonators, maybe even better than the original crystals. Real numbers were missing as the interference in the system was proving to be problematic for good readings.

Right now, Lee wished to be able to test flight one of the modified Vipers, designated as Viper Mk VIII. They were faster and even more maneuverable, thanks to small Ferron compensators. The guns had been replaced with spare Mauser plasma guns from Babylon 4's stores.

Laird had also managed to build at least small shield generators after he had rebuild the Dilgar shield generators for the Pegasus. Actually the Viper shields were doubling as Hyperlight Drives as he had used Hyperlight Coils as resonators.

Lee glanced at the display, where he could see the _Defender_ hanging in space about thirty kilometers at port. Like _Pegasus_ the rebuild military ship was on its part of the patrols throughout the Liberty system.

She had gone through a similar refit as _Pegasus_ and now _Galactica_, But it had been harder to do it. The Defender had been demilitarized and had needed to be remilitarized in a painful process. It had resulted in an armament of pure energy weapons, a larger energy production and better sensors. The weapons had nearly all come from the stores of Babylon 4, with a few Ferron systems, like the pair of spinal weapons.

"Hyperlight Pre-Emergence Event!" came a shout from the main sensory console.

Lee looked up and at the display. There was a single dot about a hundred kilometers to starboard. A moment later a contact was confirmed and automatically designated Demeter One.

"Identification for Demeter One," Lee ordered.

"Identification," the man at the sensory console replied." Single frigate sized contact. War book identified it as Silent Blade II class, Shin'bi stealth frigate."

Lee eyed Dualla for a moment.

"Has to be the _Kakashi_," his XO said." She is the only Shin'bi ship to have her jump trials. But she's early."

Lee looked back at the display, thinking for a moment. Either the _Kakashi_ had finished her trials already or she had problems.

"Lieutenant Hoshi," he said and looked at the Communications Officer." Ask the Kaskashi is she has any problems."

--

The book in Harrys hands slammed shut and he stared at the cover.

It read 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price'.

Snape was a half-blood and he had just killed Dumbledore, at least in the book?

Harry's head whirled. Everything in the books, up to 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', had been true. Not just true, one hundred percent correct, through there minor differences as Harry was pretty sure that some of the conversations had been slightly different. And several episodes from his early life, including sleeping outside during the Second Battle of Britain, were missing. But essentially everything had been true.

Of course the whole set of novels about his own bloody life had diverted from 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. But considering that there had been a bloody invasion...

But according to the books, Tom had split his very soul into multiple pieces to become immortal. And snape had just killed Albus in the novel.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment and than stared at the high ceiling above him as he leaned back into the grass of the Inner Park Cylinder.

Sure he respected Albus, but he was the first to admit that even the Headmaster could make mistakes. And Albus had most likely made a number of mistakes during his life.

Harry had had much time to think during the endless hours of mindless bodily labor while he had been a slave. A good number of thoughts had gone back to Earth, Hogwarts and his friends.

But Snape...

He hadn't really hated the potions master, it had been more a strong dislike, but now he had just gone from dislike to at hatred.

He breathed in again and the book dropped down into the grass next to him. He had nearly finished this book and there was a single book left, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

An alarm was suddenly heard throughout the entire cylinder and Harry jerked up from the ground. A nearby Jack, dressed up like a stereotypical gardener, who had worked on a patch of petunias, looked up and towards Harry.

"Yo, boss," Jack called out." Problems you are needed in the War Room."

Harry groaned and breathed in again. Sure it was going to eat his valuable free time between training and schooling, but it would get his mind off the book.

"Thanks Jack," he shouted back and grabbed the book, smoothing out the British uniform that had become pretty much his every day life clothing.

Thankfully there was a 'turbo lift' close by to move him through the station to the War Room. He walked down a flight of stairs beneath the landscape beneath the Park Cylinder and than left towards the lift.

The lift opened up and he heard the voice of Jack through the speakers of the lift cabin.

"One high speed travel to the War Room," he said gleefully and the acceleration of the cabin nearly pulled Harry from his feet.

Harry glared at the speakers, and bracing him for the deceleration.

"Could you give me a heads up on the situation?" he asked.

Sure he had to act the part of the stations commander, but as long as he had to, he would do his best work. T was kind of like trying to ignore the growing number of people who were now calling him 'Emperor'. For that he blamed the Space Wolfs and the Dilgar who had rapidly copied them,

"Sure thing boss," Jack answered with a still gleeful voice." The Shin'bi homeworld is under attack. Looks like its an invasion this time not pirates."

Harry stopped. He was just about to say something as the deceleration hit and he stumbled again.

"Section Blue One. Panties, bras and War Rooms. Ideal for birthday presents..."

Harry blinked, before blushing slightly. Leave it to Jack to remind Harry about Ariel's birthday this way.

The cabins door opened and Harry breathed in deep before stepping directly into the War Room.

The large, and new, command center of the Liberty Defense Alliance was buzzing with activity and close to the hologram tank in the center of the War Room, Admirals Takano and Adama were discussing with each other. The other commanders were standing close with them.

Harry stopped a little away from them, glancing at the Ferron and Dilgar commanders.

"All ships have Hyperlight drives," Takano said." If something happens back here, we can get back here fast."

"I don't like it to leave the civilians defenseless," Adama said with a frown, pulling his glasses from his nose to massage his temples slightly." And we don't know anything about the invaders."

Takano raised an eyebrow.

"We know that both are Quantum two civilizations. The Paratrak and one unknown."

Next to them, the holo tank began to display gun footage, combined with a tactical display.

"They would have outright destroyed a conventional Silent Blade," Takano nodded.

"That still does not change anything about the fact that we don't know anything about the spherical ships."

"They are ships of the Salasian Royal Navy," said the voice of Ariel from behind them and Harry turned around.

For a moment he saw her standing there is just panties and bra, but after shaking his head clear, he noted that she was still wearing her skin suit, not that it hid more than bra and panties. Harry could feel how he blushed before looking around for a random Jack to glare at.

The Admirals turned to look at the former princess.

"Are you sure?" Adama asked and Ariel nodded.

"I am sure," she said, breathing in deep, and having Harry lock his gaze at her chest for a moment." No one else in the galaxy builds spherical shields. They are considered to 'simple' and 'unaesthetic'."

Adama shook his head.

"That complicates matters," he noted.

"Sirs," the voice of a Jack cut in." As far as I know most ships of the Liberty Fleets are pretty much on the same technological level now, medium Quantum 2. That the _Kakashi_ wasn't destroyed tells me that we do have a fighting chance. We have numerical superiority and a tactical advantage in form of the Hyperlight Drive."

Jack's face slowly turned into a grin that said that he knew something no one else did.

"I played a little with the new technologies," he said and the grin went wider." And I came up with a new toy."

Again the holo tank images changed, showing something that looked not unlike a transport container that lazily rotated around its axis'. But one surface was covered by hexagonal panels and Harry could see a number of RCS thrusters and several rotating sticks.

"I call them missile mines," he said with wiggling eyebrows." They can deployed from a ship everywhere. Either self armed or remotely armed they can fire about..."

Jack grinned and the 'missile mine' stopped its rotation with bursts from the RCS thrusters, before the hexagonal panels exploded away and about twenty or more missiles ripple launched from it.

"... thirty seeker missiles."

He grinned again as one such missile was shown. Like the panels it was hexagonal in shape and about as long as the container was thick. On the front a red glowing lens looked out into space. Twelve small fins had folded out from the body and began to glow before the engine ignited.

"Each missile got advanced friend-or-foe recognition and finds it target mainly based on IR and visible light signatures."

Takano breathed in deep.

"Anti fighter or anti capital missiles?" Adama asked, scratching his chin before he sat his glasses back on his nose.

"Either. The capital missiles carry a one hundred kiloton fusion warhead with Tylium inlay. I think the actual power would be about fifty or so megatons. The anti fighter missiles carry six guided sub munition missiles based on the Viper Mk2E3 EO/IR anti fighter missiles."

"I sense a 'but' there..." Battle Leader Hak'ey noted dryly.

Compared to how he had looked the first time Harry had seen him, Hak'ey now looked like a high ranking politician, even through he wasn't dressed better than a normal guy on some street in London.

Jack chuckled a little nervously.

"Yeah, sure... Ya betcha, " he said and scratched the back of his head." At the moment I only build twenty of them for Earth Force ships. Only the Kobayashi Maru can carry them."

Harry groaned and massaged his temples for a moment, for the moment glad that that he didn't need glasses anymore, thanks to an operation on his eyes.

"I coming with you," he said with a sigh." I'm going to help you out with this."

"Maybe," Ariel said from besides Harry," I can help out with the fleet of my people as well..."

Adama looked at the young pair and than sighed, before glancing over to Hak'ey and Makar.

"Very well than," he said and sighed." I'm sending _Pegasus_ along, but the _Defender_ remains here."


	20. Chapter 20

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 19

--

If he had possessed a set of healthy lungs, he would have breathed in deep as he slowly walked through the halls and corridors of Hogwarts.

So many things had changed since his death. A death he chose to save the lives of his wife and son.

He shook his head as he walked on, unseen by the inhabitants of the castle, as he chose to keep himself hidden from them, ever since he had arrived here twenty years ago. If he showed himself, he was pretty sure that most of the Wizards and Witches might stare at him. Or rather the three bloody holes in the chest of his immaterial body, blood straining the fabric of his uniform, where he had been shot by the henchmen of the man who had tried to take over Europe and eventually the world.

For years he had roamed over Europe, trying to find out why he had become a ghost. Meeting with several other ghosts had thought him that normally only Wizards and Witches left ghosts, their souls rendered restless from the inherited magic of their bodies. Only in extremely rare cases normal humans, socalled Muggles became restless ghosts, trying to find a way to atone to the sins of their lifes.

He was pretty sure that he knew what his sins were, even through he knew that even his enemies on the battlefield considered him to be a good man. But in the end every soldier had a load of sins on his shoulders. He had seen some of them break under the strain. On both sides.

He shook his head and slowly turned towards the Slytherin Dungeons. Passing through one of the thick walls he found himself in the main room of what passed as the Slytherin Dorms. He had watched them for years, feeling disgusted how innocent children were turned into backstabbing bastards simply by placing them into Slytherin.

"I wonder," he suddenly heard from behind him." Why do you visit this place again and again. Even more so after the influx of Muggles in the castle..."

He slowly turned around, looking at the ghostly shape of the Bloody Baron. He shook his head slightly and let go of a ghostly sigh, clearly audible to the Slytherins in the room. They had pretty much gone into a sort of isolation after the Invasion of Earth, only leaving their dorms for classes.

"It reminds me of my life," he said." I always have the feeling that I might forget my life the longer I am dead."

"Your life?" the Baron asked and raised an eyebrow as several Slytherins turned around to look at their House Ghost talking to thin air.

"I used to server my country," he answered," like any good soldier. But by serving my country I had to serve a madman."

He looked around again and pointed at the children and teens around him.

"I have seen some thing much like this before," he said." Back than I found what I saw to be a good idea. Now I am not so sure anymore. I guess by death placed things into a new perspective."

"Explain," the Baron demanded, glaring at some of the too interested Slytherins.

"This... brainwashing of innocent children," he said, glaring right into the eyes of the Baron." Putting them into Slytherin just because of something they do not understand. Everything down here turns them into that what the Wizarding World is expecting them to become. Plotting, backstabbing bastards who mostly hang themselves to their so called blood purity."

He glared at the Baron, daring him to say something as he saw how the elder ghost shook slightly in anger, fading into sight for the first time in decades, making the Slytherins jump back at the appearance of the strangely dressed ghost.

"Don't think you can even try to intimidate me, Baron," he said." I have seen things that are too much for your medieval mind. You do not have seen the mechanized slaughter of good men on battlefields where ten thousands were considered a mere casualty. The madman I had to serve was worse than Voldemort can ever dream to be."

He turned and looked at the Slytherins staring at him before looking back at the Baron.

"One thing I tell you. The whole Ideology of Blood Purity is going to fail. Other Ideology, including that of Racial Purity has fallen in the Muggle world. Why should the Wizarding World be any different? Because of a few inept politicians?"

He slowly turned and walked back towards the wall he had used to enter.

"You all should get out more. Than you would know that there are more powerful beings out in the GALAXY than a mere wizard like Voldemort. And weapons more powerful than anything you can dream of. Go out, take a look at a simple Muggle gun..."

He shook with his own rage, as he stepped through the wall. As he stepped out on the other side, he closed his eyes. He had thought that maybe his death could have dampened his temper, but it seemed that he was wrong about that. But than again, he had never talked himself into such a rage before, at least not while was dead.

He sighed again, fading from sight and walked down another corridor. He knew that he had to keep away from the Baron for some time or he would actually try to kick the other ghosts immaterial rear.

As he continued on his aimless wanderings, he came across the Weasley Twins.

"The main guns are going to be a little bit of a problem, George."

George smirked and looked down onto a large map of northern Europe.

"Only slightly," he told his brother as they continued on their way towards one of the larger areas of the dungeon one the ghost hadn't been at in a while.

"I did some digging in old books," Fred said and pointed at one point of the Norwegian coast." There is a turret of the _Gneisenau_ at Trondheim. I figure that we keep our project a little closer to the original if we could salvage and use it."

The ghost blinked. The name sparked a few memories and he decided to follow the twin on their way.

"You think we can try to activate the computer core today?"

"We can try."

The ghost continued to listen to the bickering and planning of the twins, chuckling a little. It would not be the first time during the past years that he followed them to one of their rather insane projects, the converted Spitfire being just one.

They entered the large dungeon and the ghost didn't quite believe his eyes as he stared at the cavern that was larger than he remembered it to be. And in the center of the massive cavern he could see an equally massive shape.

House Elves and 'muggle' engineers were crawling all over the cavern and the massive shape, welding large plates of steel to the hull, while he could see some dissembling several, compared to the massive shape, small Challenger II tanks.

The ghost followed a first instinct as he slowly walked over towards the massive four threaded tank that slowly took shape inside the cavern beneath Hogwarts.

For the first time since he had crossed the English Channel on his travels as ghost, he pulled away from the ground, flying towards the upper part of the growing beast of a tank, settling down on its top, lacking the massive turret that was meant for it, even as a pair of smaller turrets, each taken from a Challenger II, were installed on its back.

He swallowed a little as he knelt down, reaching out to at least try and touch the massive hull. By now he had learned to sense magic in its own way, as he was kind of magical himself. The whole hull and structure of the massive tank was saturated with magic and it seemed to call out for him.

He breathed in with his immaterial lungs before he slowly sunk through the hull, deeper into the structure of the tank, before settling down in what appeared to be its command center of the massive tank. It was a far cry from those tanks he knew as he was surrounded by mostly improvised stations build from large arrays of screens, keyboards and trackballs.

He looked around in the Command Center of the tank, never noticing as the Weasley twins entered. As he noticed them, he tried to ignore them, marveling this wonder of modern engineering and magic.

"Reactor up and running," Fred called out." Preparing to boot up the Core."

"Magical flied around the Core are up and look good, Fred," came from Gerorge, who was standing in a small room behind the Command Center, containing a pair of CRAY supercomputers and a whole set of smaller axillary computers.

"Booting up now."

Fred pushed a red button and the ghost suddenly felt a strange tugging on his immaterial body. For a brief moment he became visible and screamed out before he was pulled backwards towards the dual CRAY core of the massive tank.

Fed and George both saw how the strange ghost had appeared and flew towards the Core and blinked. There was a ghostly moaning going through the entire superstructure of the massive tank and Fred glanced over towards George.

"I think we just got our tank possessed..."

"I am alive?" a strange voice echoed throughout the structure of the massive tank, heard throughout the cavern as the ghost reappeared in the middle of the Command Center of the tank, staring at his own hands and than around himself.

"I... I..." he stopped and closed his eyes as he slowly turned towards the Weasleys.

He looked at them for a long time and sighed.

"I think I have found a way to redeem myself," the strange ghost said with a heavy German accent in his English and nodded his head at the Weasleys." I am sorry about possessing your tank."

"Who are you?" Fred demanded and the ghost smiled a little.

"Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. You can call me Erwin."

--

"Awwwww shit."

MP5 dangling from a strap around her shoulder she ran. The last three years of her life had changed her greatly. She used to be extremely clumsy when she was in her early teens, but now, being twenty, she couldn't allow herself to remain as clumsy as she used to be. Quite the opposite in fact.

Survival in the now hostile environment of what used to be the main Japanese cities, meant that she needed to be extremely fit, agile and needed a good endurance for running.

She cursed out loud as several green bolts of energy passed over her head and smalled into walls left and right of her. In full run she seemed to fall, but continued to move forward, sliding over the ground as she passed, barely, underneath a fallen concrete wall that should normally have stopped her, years ago.

Right now she was glad that she had gotten rid of that outlandish hairstyle she used to wear as a teen in exchange for a short haircut that was more suited for the daily survival.

As she had passed her obstacle, her eyes widened as she saw the trench behind and pushed herself off the ground as fast as she could, keeping her forward momentum. Landing back on her two feet, she kept running and speed up, before pushing herself of the ground, sailing across the trench.

She landed on the other side of the trench, not unlike a cat and continued to run, not looking back just as the Doranians in pursuit jumped over the fallen wall.

"Damnit," she cursed out loud as she passed around a corner, her dead run forcing her to jump at a wall to rebound against it as she changed direction.

She grabbed the small mike of her radio and pressed the button.

"Someone fucking help me," she screamed into it and at her team mates." I'm moving south and am followed by some big bad fucking CATS! And I fresh out of juice and ammo."

Okay, sure she happened to be the one with the second highest amount of magic in the team, but it still could run out. Especially when she tried to destroy something with powers meant to heal and purify. It was just so fucking unfair that the others got the destructive magic.

"I'm on my way, meatball head," she heard the voice of the strangest of her teammates.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT," she screamed into the mike, just narrowly jumping over a railing." I GOT RID OF THAT FUCKING HAIRSTYLE!"

Great, the amnesiac with the wired powers and the taste for hard liquor just had to pick up that freaking nickname from Rei.

"Yeah, yeah," was the response.

A few moments later, she had just jumped up a wall and was in the middle of climbing upwards, with green plasma bolts slamming into the concrete around her, she heard loud music and groaned slightly as she swung herself over the top of the wall.

"THUNDERSTRUCK!" the voice of Brian Johnson called out over invisible speakers and she swore as the AC/DC song played out over the entire block.

Above her the flying shape of her teammate, like always dressed up like a skater, could be seen. She could swear that Ryoko was grinning one of her mad grins that made her infamous among the few resistance fighters of Japan.

Not quire balls of energy formed in her hands and she threw them forward, not completely aiming at the Doranians, but rather into their general area, causing much damage to their surroundings as already weakened buildings collapsed under the additional strain, taking others with them.

She sweatdropped as she continued to run, only that by now she feared Ryoko a little more than the Doranians.

"Over here!" she heard the familiar voice of Ami and turned around the next corner, her eyes widening as the massive red ex-firetruck that raced down the street only slightly decelerating as it came closer, one of the doors opening. Of course the loud voice of Brian Johnson was coming from the large speakers of the large truck.

She jumped again, just in time to grab one of the handles next to the door of the massive ex-firetruck-turned-improvised-APC.

"SHUTTLE!" the voice of Minako screamed out and she looked up before she pushed herself into the truck.

A Doranian shuttle had appeared over what remained of Juuban trying to stop them. She turned her head slightly towards where Ryoko still floated, laughing her slightly insane gloating laugh. Another ball of energy formed on her hands and flew towards the shuttle obliterating it.

She sighed as she dropped into her seat, eeping as her alien friends head popped in through the reinforced windshield of the and grinned at her.

"Nice job, Usagi," Ryoko said with a grin, pulling the rest of her body through the windshield and dropped into Usagi's lap like an overgrown kitten.

Usagi frowned for a moment before nodding.

"I could have needed a little more C4," she noted.

"Naah," Ryoko made and shook her head." It was just about enough."

Ramming itself through one of the many cars still standing on the streets of Juuban, the red fire engine truck of the 'Sisters of Battle' moves west, turning to leave Tokyo behind.


	21. Chapter 21

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 20

--

Petey was a little nervous. And he was the first to admit that being a warship and being nervous was not a good combination and tended to ended up with a good amount of collateral damage.

But he had any reason to feel nervous. He wasn't even two weeks old and before he could get through full trials, he was already going to fight a major battle, through 'major' was based on his perspective and that of the other parts of the fleet that would jump to Zaitaku to help the Shin'bi.

It wasn't the fact that it would be his first real battle without any real experience. His own performance in this battle would give Fleet Command on the _Pride of Ferrol_ some help deciding if it was a good idea to have more than just one fully AI controlled warship.

Not only that. The general performance of all crews and fleet parts during the battle was going to show if the cooperation in the Liberty Defense Alliance was worth anything.

He doubted that the Ferron part of the fleet would make very much problems. Considering the need of leaving behind ships to defend Liberty, the Ferron part of the fleet, like any, was rather small. Besides himself, _Thora's Revenge,_ the first of several Battle Cruisers, there was a single Cruiser, _Spirit of Gol_, designed to be a pure missile carrier with limited close combat capabilities, six Grav Frigates, build around a single heavy gravitic beam cannon, five Assault Frigates and three Missile Frigates. That made sixteen ships, with the ships besides him outfitted with additional modular packs for shields and Hyperlight Drives.

The Shin'bi themselves were going to send thirty five ships, about three quarters of their fleet. along. It was their homeworld and they wanted to defend it and all of the ships had been refitted with stronger shields and Hyperlight Drives. Some even had some of their kinetic weapons replaced with Plasma Cannons.

Petey had to note that the Plasma Cannons were deadly in close combat, but rather useless in really ranged combat.

Than there were the Dilgar. They were only able to send six ships along with the fleet and even if they had been repaired and in some cases retrofitted, each still was as far away from the pristine exterior and interior of himself as Liberty was from Gol. Each looked as if it had seen better days, which they most likely had, but the looks were deceptive in this case. He could call up the files about their capabilities after their refitting. The rest of their small fleet of warships was being left behind, through most still needed to be refitted. Or scuttled...

The Colonials could only send one ship with them, but this ship was the most powerful ship in the fleet and Petey considered himself to be a little behind power wise compared to the 'Beast', as the _Pegasus_ was called just about everywhere. The Beast was about twice as long as himself and packed a whole lot more weapons. But it wasn't the weapons, the retrofitted systems or the Vipers that made her that powerful, but the crew. Professional trained soldiers and spacers, who had survived several battles with the Cylons and simply had the most experience.

As Petey thought about experience, he didn't really know were he could place the _Kobayashi Maru_. The crew was consisting of just six people, not counting several dozen Jacks and other robots milling around on the former warship-turned-pirate-turned-warship. Sure, he knew the Hyperions statistic data, both before and after getting thrown into this universe and getting turned into a pirate ship, but he couldn't really place the rag-tag crew.

He gave the electronic equivalent of a sigh and his holographic avatar appeared on his own bridge. Commander Nasal had already left his crew, having edged away from him after seeing the avatar for the first time.

His avatar gave a grin. Who would have thought that the Terran koala looked so much like the Ferron drop-bear.

He glanced at the display showing the fleet and crossed his arms behind his back. A small clock in the display counted down.

"Jump," he said to himself as the clock reached zero.

With that the whole fleet disappeared from Liberty orbit.

--

Harry stumbled and breathed in deep, trying not to throw up. He knew that he hated portkeys and floo travel, but Hyperlight Jumps not only felt similar, but were raising the whole sensation to new hights.

"Bloody hell," he muttered and placed a hand on his stomach before pressing his eyes shut for a moment.

He than looked around, noting that he was not the only one who felt ill. Von Bismark for example was looking a little green around his nose, while Jeff was holding a hand in front of his mouth and stormed out of the bridge. One should think that someone used to fight in micro-gravity could take something like that better than someone like Harry.

Ariel, Aleksandr and Shinosuke on the other hand were not looking like the whole 'mega portkey' had made them ill.

For a moment Harry's eyes remained on the large fluffy tail of Ariel, wandering down to her combat suited rear and up her body. He breathed in again forced himself to look away again. Great, he was close to fighting the first space battle in his life and his thoughts became x-rated while he looked at his tactical officer.

Not that he really wanted to be here. Either on the Chair, or preparing for a space battle. He'd rather go back to Babylon 4 and train with Shinosuke. Or maybe laze around with Ariel a little. Or maybe some relaxing time in bed with Ari...

He pressed his eyes shut and breathed in deep again trying to banish those thoughts, the sound of someone throwing up just outside the bridge told him that Jeff hadn't made it to the next toilet...

Somewhere in the back of his mind he was surprised that a former fighter pilot would throw up after something like this, while another part of his mind noted that the bone crest around the pseudo-Minbari's head changed color with his head, having taken on a deep green color. Pretty close to the 'cure for boils' that had spectacularry exploded into Nevilles face during the first year.

"We're right on target," McPherson noted and Harry looked up." Zaitaku."

A large green globe hung in the left side of the main viewer, white bands of clouds and blue stripes covering the nearly pure green like a marble.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment before looking towards Shinosuke. The Shin'bi had manned communications and now glanced at the display and as far as Harry could tell his teacher wanted to get down, back home.

Shinosuke shook his head lightly and looked down to his console.

"We're being challanged by Zaitaku Space Command," he said and looked over to Harry and von Bismark.

Harry eyed the German, who was breathing in, trying to loose the green tinge around his nose.

"Respond with our ID," he said, while Harry kept silent.

Sure, just McPherson, Ariel and Sinclair had any real knowledge of space combat, but officially, thanks to Enesby, Harry was the commander of the ship and von Bismark his first in command. Jeff was completely out of the 'chain of command' on the ship as he was just acting as observer and advisor to everyone.

Shinosuke nodded and looked back up towards the screen.

Harry had to say that Zaitaku seemed to be a beautiful world. According to the files he had read, the planet was about as large as Earth, but only about thirty percent were covered by water. There were no really large oceans, but rather large lakes and seas stretching over thousands of kilometers, while being only a few hundred kilometers wide.

The way the water was spaced out over the surface and the lack of large mountains over three thousand meters made the planet an oasis of life. Large forests and vast plains covered with grass gave the planet the nearly pure green marble that hung on the left side of the _Maru_.

"The response was meet and Admiral Takeshi and Admiral Takano want us for a conference call."

Harry nodded.

"Okay," he said and swallowed slightly." I guess the others are in it as well?"

Shinosuke nodded. Harry closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep again. Another Admiral he had to deal with now. And he just wanted to get back home to Hogwarts. Or if that was impossible back to Babylon 4...

--

Admiral Takeshi narrowed his eyes as he crossed his hands behind his back and hung the claw fingers of his wings over his shoulders. If Takano was to be believed he would talk to the Shogun in a few moments.

Takeshi didn't really know if he could take Takano for real about the whole business, but an Oracle had told Takano that he would bring the Shogun to Zaitaku. Normally Takeshi didn't give much of a damn for oracles, but in this case it was different.

The believe that the Shogun would come one day was deeply ingrained into the psyche of all Shin'bi, regardless of their nation or their religion. There were so many interpretation of the hundreds of oracles about the Shogun, that it was hard to get any real image him. But one thing was sure and every Shin'bi believed in it.

The Shogun would come one day, in the darkest hour of Zaitaku, and save the planet. And he would guide the Shin'bi into a great future.

Even an atheistic pragmatic like Takeshi believed in it.

As the communications officers worked to get the various, partly conflicting, communications protocols together into one whole, Takeshi glanced up to the gallery.

The Shin'bi standing up there, should not be here. Civilians like them should not be aboard a Space Fortress like Naginata in the middle of a possible invasion. But civilians they may be, they were more curious than anyone else about the proclaimed Shogun.

Takeshi breathed in deep and shook his head slightly.

Kagome-sama should not be here. The old woman should be down in the Great Temple of Edo, neither should her children. But as the Oracle of Edo, she had every right to be here. In the end it would be her who would proclaim if the one coming was the Shogun or not.

The main screen came to life and split into four images, even through there were five different commanders of the different fleets of the Liberty fleet that had come to help, as one ship lacked any visual communication equipment.

"Admirals, Commanders," Takeshi said and nodded towards the images in front of him." I'm Admiral Takeshi, currently the head of the Joint Defense Force of Zaitaku. I'm thanking you for coming to help us."

For a moment Takeshi hoped that the Shogun thing was reality. It would unite Zaitaku more than the Pirates ever managed to do. Even now the nations of Zaitaku were still only a loose alliance of countries who just happened to have the same goal. There were still short wars and conflicts being fought on the surface.

One thing was good about the whole Pirate situation. Hadn't they come, the conflicts of Zaitaku would have spread out into space.

Takeshi himself was a born spacer. Born and bred in space, he could really understand the conflicts of the surface.

Takashi noted the looks of the people on the display. They were not to far away for being who were considered 'galactic norm' and humanoid. The only difference of one was the blue skin and the red hair, while the second had slitted pupils and a little more hair in his face. The last one was seemingly a young male of the 'galactic normal'.

And he was the Shogun?

His eyes went back up to Kagome-sama and her entourage as he heard her draw in a sharp breath. Than he looked back at the screen.

"I think we should get down to business," he noted and frowned." The attackers are three quarters of an hour away from Zaitaku. We have send several small task forces at them to test their strength, but it was not very successful. We are very sure that we are not dealing with Pirates here."

"Admiral if I may," another, female voice, interrupted and the camera that had beforehand showed the possible Shogun showed a black and white furred face.

"Ariel of Salasia," the owner of the voice introduced herself." I am pretty sure that we are dealing with a Jurian 'Relieve Force', as they call it. The spherical ships belong to the Royal Salasian Navy. The nation of my people was pressed into the Galactic Union and the Jurians took over the government.

"I am very sure that the crews of those ship are going to listen to me, if I ask them to stand down."

Takeshi raised an eyebrow.

"And why should they?" he wondered.

"Because," she answered after a moment and breathing in." I am a member of the Salasian Royal Family."

'Great', Takeshi thought,' More complications...'

"I guess it can't hurt," he said after a moment before they began to talk about an assault plan.

--

"Frack!"

Mick ran, clutching the scrolls to his chest and he rounded a corner. Gunshots rang out behind him and he closed his eyes for a moment.

A scream of pain and panic, followed by the metallic footsteps of Centurions and a loud wail. More gunshots.

Mick swallowed and ducked himself closer at the wall.

He hadn't survived this far for nothing, he said to himself. The Cylons couldn't get their hands on the scrolls.

"Oh frack," he cursed again as he saw that the narrow street in the old parts of Athenes was blocked by a rather sturdy looking metal door.

He breathed in deep, looking around in a growing panic, trying to find a way out of the street, away from the Cylons.

"You cannot run," a sultry voice called out behind him." We're going to find you everywhere, Mick."

"Frack!" he cursed out again, louder this time.

The whoosing and whining sound of Cylon Raiders passed overhead, as if the Cylons wanted to hammer in the fact that he couldn't get away.

He breathed in deep, trying to calm himself down as he slowly looked over his shoulder.

She was standing there. The blond devil of a Cylon, smirking at him with a pair of Centurions standing behind her.

"What is so important about a pair of scrolls that you throw away our life for them?" she wondered and stepped closer.

Mick took a step back, against the door, cursing the fact that it was sheet metal and not a chain link fence. That he might have been able to climb and maybe get away.

"You won't get them." he said and swallowed, backed up against the wall.

No, they couldn't get the scrolls. They contained the wisdom of the Oracle of Athenes. If the Cylons got their hands on them the Oracles precognitions would mean that they could find Kobol and the Thirteenth colony. That they could find a way to...

His thoughts came to an abrupt stop and the Cylon was in front of him before he could even blink, grinning at this face as her hands gripped the scrolls.

"I got them already."

He swallowed again, bringing up his hand.

"No," he said and swallowed, pulling the pin of the grenade in it with his thumb before releasing the rail.

She blinked for a few moments and jumped back, his grip on the scrolls being harder so that they slipped from her hands.

A moment later the grenade detonated, ripping apart Mike and the scrolls.

Six winced as she came back up from behind a dumpster.

"Frack," she said and grit her teeth as a piece of paper from the scroll sailed down onto the dumpster in front of her.

She closed her eyes for a moment and than grabbed the piece of paper, looking down on it.

"...will come, his wrath turning the Children of Men back onto the right path to guide them both to true strength. The..."

Six frowned at the fragment and shook her head.

"God already has turned us to onto the right path," she said and glanced back over to the corpse of the man she had wasted a week to follow.

"What a waste," she noted and shook her head, throwing the paper fragment over her shoulder.


	22. Chapter 22

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 21

* * *

Marcus frowned as he looked at the tactical plot. Not that he was able to see very much.

The defenders had started to jam just about everything about half an hour ago. It was several times stronger than the jamming they had experienced when the frigate had decloaked next to them. The worst thing was that his people were not able to say where the jamming came from. It seemed to come from just about everywhere. The only way of real communication was using the backup laser com systems, but those didn't really work with the com systems of the Paratrak.

However, his intel people where slowly coming to terms with the jamming and very very close to finding out where it came from. Through even now they had identified no less than six individual area of space where the jamming came from. But they were still going to need several minutes to completely isolate the transmitters.

Normally he would have said that they would attack during the time they didn't see very much through the jamming, but there had been no attack since the frigate.

Makatsaki made Marcus more nervous with any minute. The Jurian had started to pace around on the bridge, glaring at every Salasian like he was about to kill one at the drop of the head.

"Sir, the jamming is growing weaker," his intel officer suddenly said and caused Marcus to look back at the tactical plot, away from his watchdog." Communication via normal channels is going to be possible in a few seconds."

Marcus' eyes narrowed. Something was not quite right with this.

"The weakest point is on our course vector."

Makatsaki stepped up to him, glaring at his for just a moment before looking down at the plot. Only a few moments later the plot reviled a blob of contacts that were marked red. The number of contacts grew, but the jamming didn't get weak enough to get any real identification from it.

Just at this moment, Marcus was glad that Makatsaki seemed to know at least some of his shortcomings. Namely that he had absolutely no idea how to direct a naval battle. Sure the Jurian was a swordsman, but naval warfare was completely different to what the Jurian knew.

"They want to show us that they are there," Marcus noted.

Makatsaki snorted.

"So? We know they are there. Now we can crush them."

Marcus shook his head for a moment. This was a little too easy for his taste. He was sure that the defenders had some sort of ace in the back of their hands.

The sudden appearance of a pair of contacts directly between several Paratrac ships only reinforced his thoughts.

Of course both contacts were deep within the fleet and the jamming wasn't able to diverse the scanners on such a short range.

The first thing Marcus noted about both of the contacts was that they were large. Really large. Both were easily twice the length of any common warship. The next thing was that they were not identical designs. One was a blocky ship with a pair of pods on either side of the hull and a number of very visible drive systems. The second was a flat vessel designed to present very little to the enemy during frontal and broadside engagements and lacked the large drive system pods.

"What..." he heard Makatsaki say before both ships literally exploded into action.

The ship with the pods opened fire from both broad sides, directly at the pair of Paratrak ships that were so unfortunate to be port and starboard of the ship. While the weapons didn't seem to be very powerful individually, the sheer number, the mix of plasma and kinetic systems and the high rate of fire, made up for the lack of individual firepower.

In short it was like directing a sandblaster at a block of wood. The sand shredded the wood apart, much like the pair of broadsides did with the shields of the Paratrak shields.

For a moment Marcus wondered if you could walk from one Paratrak ship to the next without any problems.

The other ship could be called the polar opposite to the massed use of relatively light weapons. The flat ships weapons didn't have the sheer number and the rate of fire of the pod ship, but it made up for firepower.

For a moment the red warning for high gravitic fields flared up and Marcus could see how the contacts of a Paratrak ship disappeared.

"Gravitic weapons," he said out loud and swallowed.

There were not many races that used gravitic weapons. Not only were they extremely complicated to design, but also not very stable to be used. Normally theraces who had them were integrated into either of the large powerblocks once they had been developed.

And now here he had a ship that used what appeared to be one of the most powerful gravitic weapon he had heard of. He doubted that there was much left from the Paratrak vessel besides a block of extremely dense matter.

The ships port and starboard of the pod-ship on the other hand were attacked with more conventional weapons, if not in conventional numbers.

Not even a second after the first Paratrak ship had disappeared, the pod-ship had chewed itself through the shields of the ships it attacked and the kinetic impactors and plasma from its weapon hit the now unprotected armor.

Knowing that the Paratrak armor was not designed to deal with kinetic weapons, as there were not many races using them anymore, Marcus felt confirmed as both ships detonated rather spectacularly accompanied with a shower of hard radiation from the reactors and drive systems.

Another Paratrak ship disappeared from the sensors, hit by the gravitic weapon of the flat-ship.

"OPEN FIRE!" Makatsaki screamed just as the pod-ship and the flat-ship disappeared again.

Marcus' first thought was that the ships had cloaked again, but the sudden appearance of two additional contacts close to the fleet on their vector made him stop for a moment. The fact that the Paratrak were opening fire and their fire found no target, not even a cloaked ship, showed him that something else was going on here.

Capital ship sized teleporters?

Makatsaki's head whipped around from the tactical station and towards Marcus.

"GIVE THE ORDER TO FIRE!"

Marcus was about to answer as something else happened. Something he hadn't dreamed of in his whole life.

Speakers all over the ship suddenly began to play the Royal Salasian anthem and he was sure that everyone aboard his ships was turning towards the closed screen.

The closes screen to Marcus was the tactical plot and he stared down at it as the tactical data was replaced by the face of a Salasian.

Marcus swallowed and licked his suddenly dry lips as he stared at the face of Princess Ariel, his mind racing, trying to understand what was happening just now.

"This is Princess Ariel of Salasia," she said." I am calling the Salasian Fleet on a course vector to Zaitaku."

Makatsaki was about as surprised as anyone else aboard Marcus' fleet and stared at the display with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.

"I know that you are part of a Jurian expedition against the peaceful planet of Zaitaku. And I know that you have Jurian watchdogs aboard your ships."

Just as Ariel had said 'watchdogs', Makatsaki came out of his shocked surprise and turn towards Marcus, who still stared at the display.

"Turn it of!" he ordered.

Marcus didn't bother to try and tell him that it was not possible. The way how the message was now displayed on all available screens in the fleet indicated that the message was genuine. Everyone in the fleet knew that all families of the Royal family knew a special code that allowed them to broadcast important messages into all com systems of the Salasian Kingdom. And this messages could not be stopped until they ended.

"You all have sworn an oath to uphold the constitution of the Salasian Kingdom and follow the orders of the Royal Family," Princess Ariel continued." The expedition against the planet of Zaitaku is against the Salasian constitution. As member of the Royal Family I order you to stop the attack operation against this system."

"TURN IT OFF!" Makatsaki tried again and pulled out his Jurian sword.

The energy blade came into existence with a hum and it descended into the tactical plot display. The message didn't stop.

"I also ask you to follow your conscience and your honor as member of the Royal Salasian Navy."

Marcus felt himself pulled around by his shoulder and stared at the face of Makatsaki twisted with a strange mix of panic and hate. His sword was positioned for to strike.

"Stop the attack. Do the right thing."

Before Makatsaki could strike out, Marcus drove his fist into the Jurians gut. As the common uniform for a member of the Salasian Navy happened to be power assisted low profile armor, the punch threw the Jurian through the bridge and into a bulkhead.

Makatsali slumped over for a moment as Marcus jumped over the tactical plot. He was going to do the right thing.

The Jurian tried to pick himself up from the ground, staring at Marcus.

"You dare to strike me?"

Marcus kept his face neutral, even through he wanted to snarl out at the Jurian. He could see how the hand of his high and mighty watchdog went towards his belt, while he grabbed his sword closer.

"Yes," was all he answered as he threw himself at the Jurian.

The blade flashed out and Marcus felt how the energy blade cut through his suit and into his body. But he kept going even as a blinding pain shot through his side.

"Internal Injury detected," the tiny voice of his suits computer called out." Administering painkiller."

Marcus was able to grab the Jurians head and before his could get his blade back to a second strike he pulled his arm back.

With a wet snap the neck bones and muscles of the Jurians neck gave away to the power assisted strength of the Salasian.

Seeing how Makatsaki's eyes went wide made Marcus smile thinly as the Jurian dropped bonelessly to the ground.

Marcus closed his eyes as the Jurians dying body disappeared from the bridge, teleported to the closest Jurian outpost or ship, and breathed in deep. For a moment the pain shot through his side again, but disappeared a moment later.

"Administering blood pressure supporting drug," the tiny voice of his suit said again.

He opened his eyes again looking to his injured side. He was surprised to see his left arm laying on the ground, more or less neatly served at his upper arm, the stump cauterized by the energy blade.

It was strange to see the arm laying there. It didn't really feel like it was missing.

He breathed in again, doubting that his body would be keep going.

"Baramas," he called out his voice as strong as ever." Broadcast the following on all frequencies at maximum power and over internal speakers."

He closed his eyes again and stared at his communication officer who stared at him dumbfounded.

"Long live the Royal Family. All hail Princess Ariel."

Baramas blinked at least until Marcus' stare intensified.

"What are you waiting for?"

Swallowing he began to transmit the message and Marcus' glance went to another of his officers.

"Saker, prepare targeting solutions for the Paratrak."

His knees grew weak and he collapsed into the Chair. The ship resonated as a plasma feed to drive system five detonated, taking out the Jurian homing beacon.

Yes, he had done the right thing. Now he had to survive it.

"And now I need a medic!"

* * *

Solako stared at the teleporter pad, not believing her eyes.

"Makatsaki!" she screamed, staring at the body of her brother, his eyes slowly breaking and drool flowing from his opened mouth as his body collapsed on the pad again.

"NO!"

Just barely she was able to slam her hand on the general alert button of the _Yamada Prime _before collapsing herself.

The Jurian treeship and its escorts were going to arrive sooner than anticipated.

* * *

"Nice speech," Harry noted as he looked at Ariel.

The attack of the Pegasus and Thora's Revenge had only been a short show of force for the Paratrak and to 'open the minds' of the Salasians.

Ariel just slumped back into her seat, grinding her teeth.

"I just hope it works."

Harry stared at screen and the clean display of the sensory data. The data was provided by the Shin'bi and showed the invaders as they moved closer to Zaitaku.

"Can't someone torture the code you used out of you?" he wondered for a moment, remembering what the previous owner of the Maru had done to Ariel.

Ariel draw in a sharp breath and shook her head.

"No," she said." It's impossible for me to tell someone any secrets if I don't trust them. You'd have to ask my uncle Zak about the specifics, but its the result of genetic manipulation."

Harry blinked. He learned something new every day.

"The fleet breaks apart," Shinosuke said suddenly." Three quarters of the Salasian vessels are breaking away from the fleet."

All eyes went back to the screen.

"Looks like your speech payed off, princess," Harry noted with a chuckle.

On the screen the ships that broke away from the fleet began to open fire at the ships that remained on course.


	23. Chapter 23

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 22

--

Petey had to say that he was surprised.

He had thought that fighting in a battle would be more, well... interesting. Being one of those who helped designing the plan, it surprised him nontheless.

He had expected that the battle would be more intense.

Sure, he had scored a pair of kills with his heavy gravitic main guns just moments after jumping in the first time, but stabbing someone unaware into their backs was hardly very sporting.

Absentmindedly he directed his main guns towards a distant target, one of the Paratrak vessels. It might be interesting to see if the gravitic gun was really an FTL weapons system, not that he had FTL sensors.

"Long live the Royal Family. All hail Princess Ariel."

He killed the energy supply to the weapon keeping from firing just as the charge had reached its peak. The gravo track generators continued to run for a moment before he engaged the emergency resistors to bleed away the energy of the weapons generators.

The call went out on all frequencies, electromagnetic as well as slipstream. But the call was very weak in its strength and he idly wondered if he was the only one noticing it as he had several sets of transceivers spread out over his hull. Close to the ship transmitting it, it had to be very strong, but the jamming from eight Shin'bi ships was very strong.

His holographic avatar chuckled a little. He had experienced the jamming himself and he had to say that he himself would have had problems with it, if the Shin'bi hadn't given him and the rest of the fleet the 'free' frequencies.

The unit of warships broke up and Petey was able to make out a slight pattern.

About three quarters of the Salasian ship were moving away from the fleet and Petey's very sensitive receivers made out targeting sensors pinging through the jamming cloud as ships of the two groups began to lock onto each other.

"_Yamato Takeru_ for all vessels," the voice of Admiral Takano, the current commander of the Liberty fleet came over the radio." Execute Jump and engage targets."

For a moment, Petey wondered if he should take part in the battle, seeing that the Paratrak were not as formidable as the Salasian ships. On the other hand he also didn't want to come over as being 'overeager' to Fleet Command on the _Pride_. It would not be very good if any more ships of his line were build without AI.

So he opted to jump just when other ships had already jumped.

A few moments later he jumped, after about a quarter of the fleet had jumped themselves.

Seeing the battle from close up was much more impressive than seeing it from far away. The defectors had fully split away from the attackers and were now forming their own little fleet.

A moment later the last vessels had jumped in and the tactical network was up and running again.

Using his powerful sensors, Petey began to feed targeting information into the network, directed towards _Spirit of __Gol_, the missile cruiser, and the missile frigates. A moment later he noted that they had gotten good firing solutions and fired.

By now the Paratrak had launched their parasites and the number of ships on the battlefield had pretty much tripled on the aggressors side.

Weapons fire slammed into his shields. His avatar chuckled slightly as six of the parasites were homing in on him. By the looks of it, they were robotic, through very dumb vehicles stuffed to the brim with weapons and shields.

He noted that it was not the worst idea, considering that he was build around a similar doctrine. Those parasites didn't need life support and could pack much more punch than a manned ship of similar size.

Lazily he began to work on targeting solutions. The weapons fire didn't hurt him too much, his shields taking them without very much of a problem. And even if it had, the weapons had to chew through several moeters of heavy armor to get to his chewy bits.

Something else captured his attention. _Pegasus_ had jumped in a few moment later and now her shields had flared to life. Earlier during the first sneak attack, the Colonial Battlestar had not activated its shields fully counting on the effects of surprise. Now however the shields had flared into life and the reading he got from the more massive ship surprised him.

Okay, sure he had expected the shields to be different to what they were originally, but he had expected them to be only a little stronger. The Battlestar had four modified civilian Quantum Two shield generators, but the best Petey and just about everyone else had expected was a minimal grow in strength.

But when Petey compared the shield strength with the database he had gotten from Enesby, concerning Galactical Systems, the closest match to the shield strength of _Pegasus_ was a military star fort in the Samarant system. And that star fort was considered to have the strongest shields every build by any Quantum 2 civilization.

To top it of, each of the four shield generators _Pegasus_ mounted generated a shield of that strength. Being a little speechless, he decided to direct fifty percent of his capacity to that paradox. How could civilian shielding generators project the strongest Q2 shields in existance without apparent strain? He'd have to contact Chief Laird about any damage to the shield generators after the battle.

For a moment he wondered if it was possible to do whatever they had done with their generators to his own generators. They were military rated Q2 shield generators to begin with...

--

"Frack me," Lieutenant Ronald Foker, Commander of the recently formed Black Squadron of _Pegasus_, managed to get out as he stared towards the massive bulk of _Spirit of Gol_, the large Ferron Guided Missile Cruiser.

The massive, Battlestar-like Ferron vessel, gleamed yellow and red in the light of the distant sun and Foker breathed in deep as he looked towards the slowly moving panels of heavy hull armor as the tilted away from the hull.

Foker and Black Squadron had been ordered to provide close air defense for the massive cruiser and the smaller just 200 meter Ferron Guided Missile Frigates that were hanging close to the massive 750 meter long cruiser.

Before seeing the massive panels moving away, revealing the _Spirits_ Missile Launch Systems he had wondered why there were no visible weapons, not even anti fighter emplacements. Now he knew.

There were four of these large panels on port and starboard of the cruiser, opening up to dorsal end ventral side, leaving the only way to launch the missile to either port or starboard. It was like watching Galactica retracting her figher pods.

Beneath each of the panels was a single cell of launchers, each numbering ten rows of four missile silos, each once again protected by its own cover.

Foker licked his suddenly dry lips. The Spirit of Gol could launch a massive volley of 320 missiles at once and for a moment he wondered how many reloads the massive vessel carried. But considering the number of missile silos and the bulk of the vessel, it had to be a large number of reloads. The number of crew members had to be very low.

"Gods..." came another pilots comment over the TacNet and Foker nodded silently.

"Attention, Black Squadron," came another voice over the TacNet." Please move away from the main firing arc of the _Spirit of Gol_. We are preparing to launch a single volley."

Fokers eyes nearly bulged out of his scull as he looked to the side, staring at one of the massive MLS cells as the covers of the individual missile silos opened like the silos of a Battlestar. He swallowed as the silos opened ip one after the other and looked around.

Several of his Squadron were frantically firing their thrusters to get either up or down, but away from the missile armed broadsides of the massive vessel. He was doing the same, angling his Viper MK VIII upwards and ignited the thrusters.

A short alarm was heard over TacNet only a moment later and Foker couldn't stop himself as he turned the Viper around to face down towards the broadside of the _Spirit_.

"Attention, _Spirit of Gol_ firing."

Foker swallowed again as he stared at the way the missiles were launched. It went like a ripple from the bow to the rear, missile being launched after missile in a stream of gleaming silver cylinders riding on chemical drives.

Not even two hundred meters away from the hull and the missiles turned around in a tight arc into the flight direction of the _Spirit_, not unlike a flock of birds changing direction. The chemical drives stopped burning, jet the missiles continued on.

As soon as the volley had started it stopped, no more missile streaking away from the hull of the _Spirit_ and Foker directed his glance towards his DRADID display. The stream of missiles was clearly visible on the screen as they connected to the less numerous missile streams of the Frigates, each having launched about fourty, the same amount one cell of the Cruiser had fired.

For a few moments they continued to flay parallel to each other, crossing the considerable distance between the Guided Missile ships and their targets, ignoring both allied ships and the ships that had broken away from the aggressors fleet.

"Fracking heck," he said and breathed in deep as the missile broke away from each other, several dozen targeting one aggressor ship at the same time.

For just a moment he wondered what warhead the missiles carried as he hadn't gotten any radiological alarm from the missiles.

The Viper changed its bearing again and he stared into the general direction of the battle. It was a good distance away and he couldn't see very much out there, aside from occasional flashes of light from fire being exchanged or one of the ships detonating.

A short glance at the DRADIS showed him that there were already several casualties.

Close the the battle, the missiles went into their terminal approach. They were little more than powerful gravitic drives, a guidance package and a chemical drive for the initial launch, as the main gravitic drive would wreckage the launch silo.

A few seconds away from its projected impact point, a missiles guidance package cut the energy flow to the drive before removing all and any safeties from it. A tenth second later the drive flared up to life, creating an immensely powerful unidirectional gravitic field. The field strength climbed rapidly until it literally jumped in strength, creating a quantum singularity inside the still moving missile. The gravitic field continued to gain in strength for a few moments before the strength was high enough to cause the missile to break apart.

The entire mass of the missile disappeared into the quantum singularity in the blink of an eye, creating a light black home just as it hit the shield of a Paratrak vessel. Being a light black home, it was very short lived and with a flash of Hawking radiation and the complete conversation of its mass it disappeared again, a good half of the energy washing over the Paratrak shield and showering the rest of space with deadly radiation.

Each of the targeted ships was hit by at least twelve of these missiles and each missile detonated in a flash of light and radiation. The massive amount of energy washed over the shields, shattering them and the ships beneath.

The whole battle had been decided by a single volley of missiles.

--

Harry blinked as the number of enemy ships rapidly went down towards zero after the volley of Ferron missiles had spectacularly detonated in the shields of the Paratrak carriers.

"I want one of those," he heard one of the Jacks on board say and as he looked into his direction, he saw that the Earth Force uniform suited Jack had glazed over eyes.

"As long as you don't blow up yourself..." he muttered and breathed in deep.

The missile volley had cut the engagement short and he was glad that it had. He knew that sometimes you had to fight and take lives, but he wasn't someone who gladly took a life.

He had fought against Tom and had some fights in DADA class, including duels and the Tournement, but he was sure that they didn't really counted as fighting. It was more like playing.

The life as a Doranian slave had been a nearly constant fight, especially when the slavers singled him and other out to let them fight against each other. Sometimes it had been to the death of one of them. It was quite obvious who had died than. Harry was not very proud of it, but sometimes...

"We are being hailed from one of the Salasian ships," Shinosuke noted." Its a broad hail for Princess Ariel."

Harry nodded and breathed in deep.

"Answer to it," he said and looked towards Ariel." Place it on the big screen."

Shinosuke nodded and the screen was filled by the upper body of a male Salasian. Harry blinked at the exhausted face and the messed up hair and fur of the humanoid skunk on the other hand. He was dressed in a suit similar to the one Ariel wore, but there was something off.

He blinked again. Yes, the man was missing one arm, neatly served at his shoulder. Harry had seen it several times and he was sure that the wound was fresh and cauterized. By the looks of it, it had been some form of energy blade. It was a surprise that he was still standing, most likely pumped full with painkillers and other drugs to actually work.

"This is Captain Marcus of the RSNS Ironduke, commander of the 22nd Frontier Defense Fleet," the Salasian introduced himself." It is good to see you Princess Ariel."

Marcus was smiling as he saw Ariel. For a moment Harry's eyes went towards the sensory display.

The 22nd Frontier Defense Fleet wasn't very large right now, maybe twelve ships with several wrecks of Salasian ships floating around besides two or three wrecks of ships from the Allies. The ships of the aggressors had been completely vaporized by the missiles.

"Good to see you as well, Captain," Ariel said and from a slight reflection in her console, Harry could tell that she was returning the Captains smile." I am glad that you followed my... suggestion."

"We planned to... get away from the Jurians for some time now," Marcus responded and sighed." But I don't think that we should talk about that at this moment. I have the feeling that we are going to get another visit very soon."

"How so, Captain."

Marcus closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep.

"My Jurian... guard... gave us the order to destroy a fleet of pirates that have a base in this system. I'm very sure the native population are these 'pirates'."

Harry heard Shinosuke draw in a sharp breath. Right now he looked about ready to explode. Harry could imagine why. Being called pirates had to be a slap into the face for him and his race.

"Yes," Ariel said with a nod." They have a pirate problem through."

"Like I thought," Marcus said with a nod of himself." I'm pretty sure we were meant to destroy the planets orbital infrastructure so that a fleet that follows us can invade the planet."

"Speaking of which..." Enesby noted dryly as he started the red alert the same time the alarm claxons went on on the Salasian ship." The new 'visitors' just decided to drop by..."


	24. Chapter 24

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 23

--

Hiroshi crossed his hands behinds his body, looking at the large holographic display that was projected into the air in front of him.

The display showed a tactical view of the fleet accompanying the _Yamada_ _Prime_ towards its target space. He could only barely keep himself from frowning and keep displaying the stoic face he was known for.

Officially these ships belonged to the Defense Fleet the Jamundi family had build up over the past few thousand years. Sometimes ships of the fleet were called privateers, but everyone in the family knew that they were little more than pirates.

Hiroshi himself loathed to work with these people, but sometimes he had to do just that, even if he didn't like it. Much like he didn't like the assignment he had been given.

But that was the lot of a member of the family. He was expected to follow through with his assignments even if he didn't like it. It was a matter of honor.

The light sobbing from a corner made him turn towards its source.

Solako, one of his cousins was sitting close to Yamada, the Jurian tree near the rear of the large bridge space of the ship, sobbing.

Hiroshi didn't really know what she had seen in Makatsaki. The man had been a bastard. Not only figuratively but also literally. The son of one of Hiroshis aunts with a commoner, Makatsuki should have been glad that he had been taken into the family at all.

But that he had been taken in, not given away like it was normal and proper, he had thought himself to be better than most, something he wasn't. Hiroshis father had seen to it that Makatsuki had been placed somewhere where he couldn't cause very much trouble, overseeing the fleet of a former independent nation that had been integrated into the Empire and given to the Jamundi family as a fief.

He had made a mess out of it through. About half of the Salasian captains he had been assigned to, had been killed by him for simply not doing as they were told fast enough. His latest Salasian captain had been the one who had lastet the longest.

To Hiroshi it was karma that he seemed to have been killed by the hand of a Salasian.

It was also the reason he had ordered his fleet to increase the speed to the maximum so they would arrive earlier.

Something was going wrong with the fleet of Salasian and Paratrak ships that had been send out to prepare the system and Hiroshi wanted to know what.

Sure, he didn't like this assignment, but he would follow through with it as it was expected from him.

While he supported that civilizations of a lower technological and cultural level were integrated into the Empire for their own good, he didn't support that whole planets where turned into slave camps. To him that practice was barbaric at best. Doranians were expected to do something like that, but not Jurians.

However he also knew that he was one of the few members of his family who thought like that, as the Jamundi family had a very extensive, through not very legal, slave trading network and several planets that had been taken over sorely for the population to be sold as slaves.

And the Shin'bi were highly thought after as slaves.

He sighed slightly.

"One minute to arrival at the teleportation coordinates of Makatsuki," the slightly distorted female voice of Yamada noted.

Hiroshi nodded. The slipstream jump had been slightly extended to drop exactly where the bastard had been killed and teleported away.

A part of him wanted that the dissidents could get away with it for doing the Jamundi family a favor, but on the other hand he was bound to the laws and those said that they had to be brought to justice for killing a Jurian.

He breathed in deep.

"Prepare to deploy shield and all defenses."

Of course he knew that the 'shield' happened to be the single Light Hawk Wing of his 3rd generation treeship, leaving the actual shield generators out for an emergency, should one come.

"Order the fleet to engage any targets as soon they have locked in."

He knew that the last order was redundant. The ships in the fleet belonged to pirates after all and they would open fire as soon as leaving slipstream anyway.

Silently he waited, ignoring the crewmen around him, staring stoically at the display as the time ticked by.

"Leaving slipstream."

The display changed again. Static flashed over the display and here and there he could see blinking squares of possible contacts.

Hiroshi blinked. Jamming? He had dealt with several renegade Salasians before and knew that they liked to jam the sensors if they were able to. But that wasn't going to pose much of a problem.

"Please negate the jamming, Yamada," he noted dryly, just as he felt how the Light Hawk Wing flashed into existence and had to deal with several impacts of energy weapons.

"But of course," was the trees answer and Hiroshi nodded to himself as the display cleared.

He glanced at the display.

There were about seventy ships opposing his fleet of one hundred fifty. So he had an advantage of about two to one. The opposing ships seemed to belong to several different fleets.

One was consisting on Shin'bi vessels, like he had expected and been briefed about. There was only a problem about these ships. The emissions of these ships were Quantum 2 based technology, not the Quantum 1 tech, he had expected. Had they developed that fast?

He shook it off.

The next group of ships were likewise Quantum 2 technology, but likewise there were a few problems. Four of the ships from this group held back, away from the battle line that was slowly developing as the ships moved towards each other.

The third group surprised him the most. Dilgar ships. He hadn't thought that there were any Dilgar left. The Minbari had completely destroyed the Dilgar Empire after a Dilgar Cruiser had unknowingly fired on a Builders Caste Freighter and drawn the Minbari into the Fight.

Hiroshi still remembered the Dilgar War. While some forces in the Empire had wanted to support the Dilgar, the Emperor himself had nixed it, not wanting to draw the Minbari into a full out war over the entire galaxy.

The fourth group was a number of Salasian ships, most likely the ships that had broken away from the previous fleet. Some of them were damaged as far as he could tell from the display.

The last group was a pair of vessels that were about as unique as the first three groups. One was a rather small vessels that he recognized. The _Kobayashi Maru_ of a known pirate, making him wonder why it was there.

The other ship was a behemoth of a warship, so large that Hiroshi wasn't sure if it didn't already count as an orbital fort. Especially the strength of the ships shields made him a little nervous. And right now the massive vessel was launching fighters.

For a moment he thought about the opposing fleet. The behemoth was going to be the most dangerous of the ships. And the pirate ship was an anomaly.

"Disable Contact S-14," he ordered." I want the ship intact and the crew unharmed for interrogation. Relay that to the fleet. And order them to concentrate their fire on Contact S-44."

He blinked a moment later as the four ships in the background suddenly filled the sensory display with several hundreds of smaller contacts. For a moment Hiroshi wondered about the nature of those contacts. They were to fast for fighters. Missiles perhaps?

He shook his head. Even if he was dealing with missiles, the worst they could carry were high yield thermonuclear devices. Nothing that could really hurt any of the ships in his fleet.

He directed his attention at the pirate ship.

"Target quired," came the voice of his tactical officer." Firing."

The weapons of the treeship lashed out at the _Maru_, the beams going wide but still hitting the ships shields and straining them to collapse. To give her some credit, the shields were able to keep the Jurian beams weapons in bay for several seconds, but in the end they still collapsed. The next beam raked across the rear section of the Hyperion, serving the bow of the ship from its engine section with a neat cut.

The sudden lack of the engine and reactor section send the bow into a lazy spin, while more beams from the tree ship slammed into the reactor section causing it to explode in a rather violent matter, causing the ship to spin even more.

Hiroshi nodded to himself. Now that that ship was dealt with, he could direct his attention back to the behe...

The open bridge of _Yamada's_ _Pride_ was suddenly bathed in pure bright light and Hiroshi sreamed as alarm claxon began to blare. He clamped his hands before his eyes as he collapsed onto his knees.

"Serve impact of two dozen low weight black holes into the Light Hawk Wing," Yamada's voice called out." Thirty vessels were destroyed and I am reading damage to my forward bow."

Hiroshi didn't really hear anything as he continued to scream from the pain in his cooked eyes, just as parts of the skin in his face began to blister and peel away.

--

"Great," Ariel cursed and stared at her own sensory display." Jurians."

Harry blinked as he looked at the display himself. On the communication screen, Marcus frowned and breathed in deep.

"I guess we are going to talk later."

Ariel nodded.

"Yes. First we have to defend Zaitaku."

Marcus breathed in deep.

"Yes, Princess," he said with a nod and the connection was served.

"One hundred fifty ships," Ariel noted a moment later and looked back at Harry." Most of them are pirate ships."

Harry breathed in deep, remembering some of the stories he ad heard while being a slave and while being with some of the Dilgar and Ariel of course.

He looked at her for a moment, only barely restraining himself from descending into a set of dirty thoughts.

Glaring a the display and the circled red triangle of the Jurian vessel, he frowned. All the stories he had heard about the Jurians weren't very good. And now they were working together with pirates. No, they were not going to become his favorites.

"Order from Admiral Takano," Shinosuke noted." We are to engage at will."

Harry breathed in and looked around.

"Okay, get us into the fray," he said with a sigh.

Another battle he was forced to fight.

On the display ships began to advance towards each other, and _Pegasus_ was sitting in the middle like a fortress, spitting its Vipers out into space. _Thora's Revenge_ was sitting in space next to her, with little over one kilometer length she looked kind of small compared to the massive bulk of the Battlestar of nearly a mile length.

A moment later the display filled with missiles launched from _Spirit of Gol_ and the missile frigates. He had seen how the missiles had taken down a whole fleet of ships and wondered what would happen if the Jurian ship was hit. He had heard that they were invincible.

Suddenly the ship shook.

"We are bing hit," Ariel called out." Shield stress fifty percent and raising."

A second later there was an audible detonation that shook the ship and the light flickered out at the same time artificial gravity and the holographic displays failed. For the moment Harry was glad that The Chair had seat belts, otherwise he would have floated out of the seat.

Red emergency light flashed to life and a single holographic display lightened up. The ship shook a second time and Harry felt like someone had stuffed him back into that mine roller coaster to his vault. He was pressed into the back of his seat at one moment before being thrown into another direction.

"We lost the engine section!" Enesby said with a weak voice." Neatly served from the bow. I'm bringing the backup reactors online."

"Bloody Hell," Harry managed to get out as he fought back the raising bile in he throat.

At the helm, McPherson had gripped the a pair of flight sticks. She pulled them around wildly and Harry could hear the clacker of large valves opening and closing as the massive reaction control systems fired to get the ship back into stable flight.

McPherson needed a few moments and Harry closed his eyes. A light panic grew in his mind. These ships had come to invade the planet and enslave the population. And his ship was relatively unharmed. They would board the ship, interrogate and torture him and than he would go back into slavery.

He swallowed and breathed in deep.

No, he was not going to allow that. He'd rather die.

"Enesby," he called out, his voice firm and his eyes snapping opened again." Can we jump?"

Ensesby blinked and turned around to face Harry, as the maraca slowly rotated.

"What?"

Harry's eyes narrowed.

"Can. We. Jump?"

Enesby's eyes grew large.

"Yes?"

Harry's eyes bored into the AI remote.

"Prepare a jump close to the Jurian ship," he ordered and the AI's eyes seemed to bulge out of his head." Ariel, I want a full Alpha strike on my mark."

"But..."

Harry said nothing in return and simply glared back at Enesby.

The sensory display blinked into life just in the right moment to show how the Ferron missiles smalled into the enemy fleet, vaporizing thirty ships and even hitting the Jurian ship. For a moment the display went blank before reviling that the Jurian ship had survived.

Harry breathed in deep and for a moment his eyes seemed to glow with an inner light.

"Jump," he simply said, his voice emotionless.


	25. Chapter 25

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 24

--

Space twisted and turned as technologically modified raw magic pulsed out from the Hyperlight core of the crippled _Kobajashi Maru_. Liquid Thylium deflagated in the Hyperlight chamber feeling quantum mechanical energies into the Hyperlight core, making the markings in the organic core glow. The rotation of the core and the electromagnetic fields twisted the quantum energies transforming them into raw magic that was shaped by the marking of the core. Other magic, coming from a different source poured into the raw magic, changing the field just slightly.

With a flash of energy the solid Thylium in the center of the Hyperlight core soaked up the magical energies and released them strengthened a hundred fold. The _Maru_ ceased to be for a moment as the magic ripped the ship into its atoms and pushed them into hundreds of thousands of minuscule wormholes the magic had punched through space time.

The crippled _Maru_ disappeared from its original position, thrown through the wormholes only to condense to its original form as the magic dissipated.

--

Harry Potters eyes were directed on the holographic display in front of him as he felt the familiar distortion of the Hyperlight Jump or apparation he knew.

The display inf front of him changed from the distant view of the battle to become a direct view of a Jurian treeship positioned only a few hundred meter off the bow.

"Fire," he said calmly again.

Ariel swallowed lightly as she couldn't help herself but follow Harry's order. She pressed the sensory button that glowed slightly in front of her.

The powerful Heavy Plasma Cannons, Lasers and Pulse Cannons of the _Maru_ fired directly ahead at the Jurian treeship, striking the large crew section between the twin bow in a torrent of plasma and energy.

Not having any shields activated besides the single Light Hawk Wing, the treeship was without any protection. The energy leaving the weapon systems of the Hyperion hit the unprotected hull, burning against the wooden armor. Even through the hull was made out of wood, it was stronger than the hull material of most races, but the concentrated onslaught of destructive energies took its toll.

Patches of the wooden hull began to glow dull red as the wood burned away into carbon.

"Full speed ahead," came Harry's next order, as calm as before.

McPherson turned around to face him for a moment, but his glare made her turn back to her controls again. She only knew Harry for a few month, but normally he was a nice guy. Now his face was lacking any emotion and the way his eyes seemed to glow from the inside frightened her.

The elder woman breathed in, pushing her flight sticks forward, igniting the pair of backup engines left and right of the bow segment of the crippled Hyperion.

"Ram them 'til they give up!" was the comment from a single Jack.

The engines awoke with a roar and pushed the until then motionless Hyperion towards the crew segment of the treeship.

Even while the Hyperion was crippled and a large part of its mass missing, the remaining bow segment was still massing several million metric tons that began to move.

The treeship still didn't move or took countermeasures as the Hyperion bore down towards it, still firing its weapons, weakening the hull.

The several hundred meters distance between the ships became less and less as the engines continued to push the crippled _Maru_ forwards in slow motion.

The first to meet between the two hulls were the antenna in the bow of the Hyperion. Snapping like twigs and bending like cheap wire the mass of the _Maru_ pressed them forward. Some of the more sturdy antennas and sensory arrays bored themselves into the treeships hull. Wodden parts the size of cars snapped and broke away, drifting away from the impact site only to be deflected by the heavier armor of the Hyperion.

Only scant moments later the bow of the _Maru_ had lost most of its antennas and the actual bow began to push forward.

Stuttering the secondary engines of the _Maru_ died, while the mass of the ship alone drove her on deeper into the hull of the treeship.

Like the planks of a sailship ramming a reef the wooden hull of gave away under the strain of the impacting Hyperion, sending even larger pieces of wood, some the size of heavy trailer trucks out into space only to be caught between the Hyperion and the treeship pressing deeper into the bow.

Cracks from the impact site grew out over the entire crew section, sending more splinters into space and exposing whole sections to space.

The transparent heavy duty crystal covering the bridge of the treeship and the only thing separating it from space burst in a shower of sharp crystal splinters, killing most of those on the bridge. Heat from the Maru's weapons suddenly ignited most of the now unprotected organic materials. The atmosphere that streamed out of the hull into space acted like a blowtorch, feeding more oxygen into the beginning fire.

The Jurian tree, already damaged from the sudden flash of energy that had blinded and heavily injured the bridge crew, caught fire with the fire extinguishers unable to smother the fire as the amount of oxygen feed into the fire and the stream of atmosphere was too strong.

The _Maru_ continued on its way, transferring parts of the kinetic energy over to the Jurian ship dragging it along on its course as the massive Earth Force ship wedged itself into its hull.

Moments later the strained crew section of the treeship was not able to take the dragging crash anymore and wooden planks snapped and splintered, severing it from the rest of the treeship and cutting the bridge in half.

More atmosphere streamed out of the ship, letting the flames on the interior of the bridge grow for a moment until they died down to a dull red glow.

The Light Hawk Wing flickered and disappeared, while the _Maru_ continued to drag the treeship with it. Lights all over the treeship flickered as well and died down, leaving the ship dead in space, dragged along by the Hyperion ramming it.

Slowly the Hyperion wedged itself between the pair of stronger bow pylons of the treeship as they drifted along through space, the heavy bow armor of the _Maru_ having protected the ships interiour mostly.

Harry didn't say anything about the horrible screeching noises that vibrated throughout the whole hull of the Maru, staring at the display at the wrecked treeship.

"Hull breach on Deck 1 through 4," Enesby noted, staring at the still horribly calm Harry." Closing off damaged sections."

Slowly the screeching noises died down and Harry's head turned to settle on Aleksandr.

"Board that ship," he said, the strange calmness creeping out everyone, safe for the Space Wolf." Remove any opposition."

Aleksandr grinned and there was a manic glittering in his eyes.

"Yes, my Emperor," he said and looked at Von Bismark." I told you that I would need my Marines."

With that he left the bridge, floating towards the corridor to get his Marines, some of his new Blood Claws and than proceed towards the ships teleporter to get aboard the treeship.

--

Marcus stared at the display in front of him. He was not really sure if that had really happened or if he was seeing things because of the many drugs floating through his bloodstream.

"Did that ship just..."

The display in front of him showed the severed bow of the _Kobajashi Maru_ wedged between the twin bow of the _Yamada's Pride_, while the crew section of the Jurian treeship floated away from the rest of the hull.

"Yes..."

Marcus was sure that the battle had stopped for a few moments, staring with the moment where the nearly undamaged bow section of the _Maru_ had jumped, yes jumped, behind the Jurian ships Light Hawk Wing and bore down upon the ships with all its weapons, before surging forwards with emergency drives to RAM the Jurian ship.

"Frell..." he got out as he stared at the pair of ships drifting through space.

He had never thought that someone would be so insane to manage something like that. Sure he had heard about Jurian ships being destroyed, but that was either because they had opposed Minbari ships, Ryo-Ohki or Kagato. Not a Quantum 2 ship. Especially not the ship where a member of the Royal Family was aboard.

He breathed in deep, his mind racing for a moment.

"Protect the _Maru_," he ordered." Order every ship to protect the Princess."

He draw in a sharp and deep breath. Right now they could need a another few of those devastating missile salvos.

--

Lee Adama continued to stare at his DRADIS screen, keeping a hand at a rail close to him. He still preferred screens over the holographic display in the center of CNC.

"Frack", the voice of a Viper pilot said over wireless," The _Maru_ just rammed the enemies flagship."

For a moment it had seemed like the battle had stopped around them as the contact of the _Maru_ had pulled of its stunt. Lee had never thought that he would see such a short jump. The minimum distance he knew of was a light second. And the _Maru_ had jumped over just a few kilometers, crossing the distance between it and the flagship in the blink of an eye.

On the screen he could see the spheres of the Salasians leaving their improvised positions in the ranks of the fleet, moving towards the place where the _Maru_ and the flagship had collided.

"Status of the _Maru_?" he asked and turned towards Dee.

"Doesn't look very good, sir," she answered and raised her microphone." Viper-122, what is the status of the _Maru_?"

Viper-122 was one of the first Vipers that had been launched and thanks to the fleet communication network and the ID transmitters the fire control of the _Spirit of Gol _had been able to direct their missiles away from the Vipers. But Viper-122 had still been able to get a good look at what had happened.

"This is Viper-122," the pilot answered and Lee could hear him breathe in deep.

For a moment he wished that he could be out there. The attackers had launched their own fighters soon after dropping out of slipstream and the Vipers had good work to do.

"Looks like the _Maru_ is wedged into the flagship," the pilot of Viper-122 continued." The flagship is out of it, but the _Maru_ looks good. I can see plasma trails where the engine section was severed, but the bow doesn't seem to have suffered much in the collision."

"Sir," the communication officer said and looked up." I'm getting a general call from the _Maru_. They seem to be fine. The... Marines are now boarding the flagship."

Lee blinked, his eyes moving back to the DRADIS display. Potter had guts that he had to give him. For such a scrawny kid, he really had guts to pull off a stunt like that.

A moment later the CNC of _Pegasus_ shook and Lee gripped the hand rail a little stronger. For a moment his eyes went to the stress meter of the shield systems. It slowly moved back towards fifty percent after having dropped down to thirty during the brief pause in the battle.

It seemed that the attackers were still seeing the _Pegasus_ as the biggest threat. Not that Lee complained. The shields had turned out to be much more powerful than anticipated and Lee was read to bet that his ship could sit out the attack of the more than seventy pirate ships.

The ship shook again as another salvo of heavy plasma bolts slammed into the shields and Lees eyes moved back to the stress meter.

He suppressed a snort. Once again the shield stress was not getting bigger than fifty one percent give or take one percent.

And that was with modified civilian shield systems. What could the ship take when it was fit with modified capital ship shields?

"_Spirit of Gol_ firing," was thrown into Command and Control.

"Course projection?"

"Not possible at the moment, sir."

Lee could see why on the screen. Several ships of the attacking fleet were breaking off and flew towards the cloud of missiles that moved like a flock of birds or a swarm of fish. Deadly fish. Lee could make out the small marking that showed that the ships were firing at the missiles and the number above the cloud of missiles decreased.

But the same course the ships were taking was making them pass Pegasus rather closely. It seemed they though that Pegasus was busy with the ships firing at her.

That might have been true. But knowing their course and some simple ballistics...

"Bring her about," he ordered and grinned a little." Tactical, prepare the TN-Warheads for the spinal cannons and get me a purely ballistic firing solution for them at targets Demeter-twenty three through thirty four."

The TN-Warheads were a present of Jack as a kind of gesture of good will. Specially designed for the Pegasus' spinal coil guns, the TN-Warheads carried heavy thermonuclear devices Jack had called 'Tzar'. He had not told the actual yield of the warheads, but noted that they were spiked with liquid thylium and that he expected the detonation to be ten times stronger than without the Thylium.

"Targeting solution for Demeter-twenty three through thirty four."

"Fire."

The large spinal guns chambered the TN-Warheads and their massive capacitors released their charge. Each of the remaining spinal coil guns fired, sending shells the size of shuttles into the void and towards their target areas.

Moving along ballistic trajectories they moved closer towards the charging warships undetected.

It was a testament of Colonial Firecontrol that the massive shells didn't stray from their trajectory. Proximity sensors sensed the close ships and send detonation impulse to the massive thermonuclear charge.

While not as powerful as the gravitic warheads of the Ferrons missiles, the TN-Warheads of Pegasus detonated with close to five hundred Megatons.

Still the massive nuclear detonations were drowned by the orgy of destruction the Ferron missiles wrecked under the attacking fleet.


	26. Chapter 26

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 25

--

Takano breathed in deep as he glared at the plot in front of him.

He had just lost three cruisers and five frigates and about half of his ships were damaged and had suffered casualties. Even the _Yamato_ _Takeru_ had suffered a hull breach and had cycled its shield for the second time after loosing the breakers.

Another loud radiation warning blared through the Command Center of the _Yamato_ and another group of Pirate ships disappeared after being hit by another Ferron missile barrage. Thankfully the shields were up and able to keep the radiation away from the hull, even if the shields dropped by five percent from the radiation alone.

The Pirates were still coming at him, outnumbering him and his allies, but he could see how they were loosing resolve and how one or two ships began to edge away from the battle.

Right now they only seemed to have a loose command structure, seeing how they moved and attacked in a rather chaotic way, the jamming and having lost the command ship doing wonders with their inter ship communication, the opposite to the Tactical Network between the ships of his fleet and allies.

But even if the pirates were taking out his ship, the command structure would remain strong with Commander Adama of the _Pegasus_ taking over. Takano had talked a few times with the colonial. Sure the man was mainly a fighter pilot, but he was an officer and had a decent command experience for large warships and knew naval combat tactics.

Takano glanced towards the center of the display and the contact that happened to be the remains of the _Maru_ stuck in the heavily damaged hull of the pirates command ship.

While Takano himself had problems to believe that Potter was the Shogun, more and more things were pointing to it. But even if Potter wasn't the Shogun, he was at least a hero for an act like that. And Takano would be damned if he would allow someone like that to die under his watch.

He was just glad that the Salasian ships had positioned themselves close to the wrecks to protect them.

It had been a daring move to jump close to the pirate command ship and...

Takano's thoughts came to a halt. That was it.

He turned around and began to give new orders.

--

Aleksandr grinned feral as he looked around, gripping his chainsword with his left and the bolter with his right hand.

It felt good to be in armor again, armed with weapons he was used to. The machine spirit of Babylon 4 had fallen over itself to build the armor and weapons specially for Aleksandr and his Space Wolfs.

And now he was going to give them a good testing.

He sniffed the air and turned his head to the left as he saw something moving from the corner of his eyes. His head turned at the same time as he swung around his heavily armored hand. He didn't even need to really aim his bolter at the figure staring back at him as he pressed the trigger and the gyro-projectile left the barrel of the bolter with the characteristic 'dakka' sound.

Three more heavy high explosive tipped micro rocket projectiles followed the first as Aleksandr turned.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" he yelled out loud and swung his massive left arm towards the enemy hearing how the explosive tips of the bolter projectiles hit the enemy." CHARGE!"

Aleksandr didn't wait as he charged forwards, leaving the three men team of recruits behind, his mind focussed on the battle that was going to begin.

While Aleksandr was dressed in an armor that resembled the classical blue gray Errant Powered Armor, the three recruits, one Colonial, one Dilgar and the single Shin'bi of the entire groups of recruits were kitted out with armor that resembled Carapace Armor of the Imperial Guard, through it was fitted with an additional personal shield.

The three recruits didn't waste much time as the followed Aleksandr, the conditioning they were exposed to bearing first fruits.

"FOR RUSS AND THE WOLFEN TIME!" the Colonial yelled bringing his plasma rifle up, pointing towards the group of opponents that rounded the corner.

Only one of the opponents had been a Jurian, his torso and head now blown to pieces by the powerful explosives of the bolter shells, while the rest were robots that looked more like wooden logs than Centurions of either generation.

Plasma balls impacted into the shields of the robots weakening them as Aleksandr moved closer, bringing his chainsword to bear. The massive weapon roared out as the shield of the first defense robot failed and Aleksandr swung at it.

The massive Space Marine ignored that one of the robots hit his head, burning away a part of his face. The rest of his face took on a slight lupine shape as the chainsword met with the wooden hull of the robot tearing into and through it like a chainsaw through a wooden log, exposing the robots interior.

Rapidly Aleksandr's face grew back and he growled out loud as he pushed his chainsword deeper into the robot, making it send spark over the deck as the robot was cut apart.

More plasma ball from the recruits weapons brought the next robots shields down and Aleksandr pointed his bolter at it, squeezing he trigger as he stomped down on the remains of the first robot. The explosions of the bolter projectiles send shards of wood flying before the damaged reactor housing detonated and dosed the third robot in hot plasma and parts of the wooden deck began to burn.

--

Shinosuke breathed in deep as he felt gravity return and he sat heavily in the seat before the communication console of the _Maru_.

For a moment he glanced over to Potter. The young human was glaring intensely at the tactical display and it didn't seem like he had even noticed that gravity had been restored by the Jacks and Enesby by routing energy from the backup reactors of the bow section of the _Maru_ into the gravity generators.

In fact he still floated next to the holographic display, holding onto a nearby seat. And there was still the glow of magical energy in his eyes, making them appear burning. But the glow in his eyes was not the only thing that concerned the Shin'bi. For a moment it looked like Potter was surrounded by a golden shimmer that wavered around like it had a mind of its own.

It was not something he had ever seen before. Not eve Master Naruto had been able to show any of those rather casual displays of magical power.

And it was yet another of the little things that pointed out at Shinosuke that he was right. Potter had to be the Shogun. There was no other way. All these little things were written down in the multiple hundred oracles about the Shogun, most of which were unknown to the Shin'bi public.

Why should anyone know that the Shogun was a non-Shin'bi and belonged to the same race as the First Teachers? Why should anyone know that the Shogun was a young man barely out of child hood? Why should anyone know that he had a bad childhood?

Shinosuke had taken the time to read the seven 'Harry Potter' novels in the library of Babylon 4 and more than one little piece from the many oracles had started to make real sense. But others failed to make any sense. How could he bond to a pant?

He shook his head and looked down at his own instance of the tactical display. He had little to do right now. The _Maru_ was out of the fight and the Salasians were doing a good job to defend them.

Shinosuke had wondered if they could jump away from the battle, but Potter had insisted to remain here, while Enesby had noted that they could burst into their component atoms should they attempt to jump with a misaligned Hyperlight Core. They had been lucky to be able to jump with a crippled ship.

The Shin'bi licked his lips.

A fourth barrage of Ferron missiles had taken out another wave of Pirate ships and it looked like any order among the Pirates was dissipating under the continued onslaught of powerful missiles. While the missiles were responsible for the most casualties of the Pirates, the other ships were taking down other Pirate ships.

Some where shred to pieces with Colonial guns, while others were turned into straps of dense matter or detonated under the fire of Masers and heavy nukes.

"Some are breaking off," Ariel noted with a rather dry tone of voice, making Shinosuke look at her.

The Shoguns consort, he thought for a moment. She fit the bill closer than the Hermione Granger from the 'Harry Potter' novels he had thought about before.

He shook his head again and glanced back at the display.

There was that strange golden glow again, coming from Potter who glared at his display. It seemed to spread out over the deck and Shinosuke could feel the scales in the back of his neck standing up as the magic washed over his for a moment only to dissipate into the hull.

Another missile barrage was send out from the _Spirit of Gol_ and for a moment Shinosuke thought that one or two of the missiles had made a jump forwards. Some missiles spread away from the course of the others streaking towards the fleeing ships.

He breathed in sharp as the missiles seemed to jump again and hit one or two of the fleeing ships. He looked at Potter again. He had settled down on the deck by now, through his hair still seemed to float around his head.

As he looked back at his display, the Pirates seemed to get it, that they had lost and more than one ship broke away from the attacking fleet and accelerated.

Moments before the _Spirit_ could fire again, half of them jumped to Slipstream and disappeared from the battlefield.

Than there was a loud thumb that made Shinosuke look up again.

"Harry!"

Potter had just collapsed boneless and lay on the floor, Ariel jumping out of her seat to kneel next to him.

"Verdammte Scheisse..."

Shinosuke eyed von Bismark for a moment.

"Hatten wir'n Glück..."

--

Jack was bored.

Very bored.

Bored beyond believe.

A bored artificial intelligence, build to control an entire space station and its industrial system, was never a good thing.

This case wasn't going to be any different.

Jack knew boredom. He had been bored for decades, even centuries. That boredom had resulted in a large amount of various autonomous artificial intelligences and other robots being build for various things. It had also resulted in a very beautiful park in the vast 'outside' areas of the station.

Okay, that last one was a good example, but Jack remained bored.

Of course he now had a larger database of things to draw from, so it gave him many more things to do and to think up.

Thinking up how to build a ship sized wand for one Harry Potter was among the harmless things.

Building himself a Hyperlight Drive and install it into the drive section of Babylon 4 was a moving idea.

The large one hundred shot missile pod designed to fire Ferron missiles was one of the dangerous ones.

Building a large number of 'Chibi Six' robots specially designed to harass one President Gaius Baltar was an hilarious one.

The strange construction in clinical white plastic, steel and chrome that took shape in one of the loading bays however was creepy. As were the oval white things standing around the loading bay with the red light in the center and strange seams left and right, now and than asking 'Are you still there'.

There also was the strange and fun sounding melody coming from the landing bay, combined with a random Jack asking for cake...


	27. Chapter 27

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 26

--

Harry breathed in deep, trying to ignore the smell of burnt wood as he slowly walked through the damaged corridors of the Jurian treeship.

The battle was over for about an hour, with the Allied Fleet winning the engagement. About a hundred or so pirate ships had been taken out by the missiles from the _Spirit of Gol_, the target being reduced to clouds of expanding gas by the powerful missiles.

Another about forty ships were destroyed by the conventional ships and weapons, while the rest had managed to flee the scene of battle in various stages of damage.

Harry knew that something had changed in him. Years of slavery had come to flash before his eyes, followed by the number of battles he had had to fight back on Earth against Tom. The death of Cederic had played again before his eyes, side by side with the death of dozens of slaves he had been forced to watch by the Doranians.

Before the battle Harry had just wanted to get as far away from all this as he could, having been pretty much forced into the command over the _Maru_ and Babylon 4 had not been something he had liked, but he had tried to pull through it anyway. It had been far better than slavery.

But the battle had showed him that he would not be able to get away from his past. Not that of being a slave, not that of being an unwilling hero of the Wizarding World. Out there the galaxy was large. And everyone took slaves. Slaves and fiefdom was normal out there. The Strong were forcing the Weak under their 'protection'.

And the Jurians were one of those who took slaves. One of them had lead a fleet of pirates against a peaceful planet with a people who wanted to be left alone.

He looked around. It was hard for him to imagine that most of this ship had been build using nothing but wood. Enesby had noted that the wood needed a Jurian Space Tree to remain alive and strong. A dead tree would make the wood decay fast and destroy what was left of the ship.

Harry could feel magic running through the wood of the ship. Maybe that was what kept the treeships together and alive. Magic. And maybe the Space Tree created this magic.

Slowly Harry entered what remained of the ships bridge. He winced slightly at the hull of the _Maru_ sticking out where the frontal half of the bridge had been, no the frontal half of the whole ship. The massive crystal dome of the bridge had been replaced by a forcefield for now, and Harry had to be careful not to step into one of the many crystal splinters sticking out of the wooden deck.

He breathed in deep as he saw a horribly mutilated body, crucified to the deck by crystal shards. It was the only body on the bridge. Not far from the hull of the _Maru_ was what remained of the Jurian Space Tree. Large patches of its bark and about half of the trunk had burned away and the few wisps of smoke showed him that parts of it still burned.

There were not many leafs left. And those that were still there had turned brown and were slowly falling apart by the gentlest breeze.

A loud groaning sound went through the bridge and Harry had his hand at the small contact that would turn his uniform into full fledged low profile armor and a space suit. The hull of the Maru moved very slightly, but Harry knew that Enesby was keeping them both connected for now.

He closed his eyes for a moment and than his eyes moved back towards the Space Tree.

It seemed impossible, but there was still life in it. Even being heavily damaged, it was still alive. He could feel the magic rolling of the tree, holding the ship together, but the magic was slowly disappearing. The tree was dying.

Harry had heard that the Space Trees were bonded to their owners and had made the connection to the House Elves of the Wizarding World. During his slavery he had come to thing the same as Hermione about them. The House Elves were little more than slaves, bond to their household.

Sure they were contempt with their lives and lived to work, but they still remained slaves.

Harry's eyes remained on the Tree. That would make the Space Trees were also slaves. It seemed strange that a plant could be a slave, but Harry had stumbled over two intelligent plants while he had been a slave and the Space Trees were intelligent. How else could they be the central computer of the treeships?

There was it again. Slavery.

Could it be that the Jurians were seeing the Space Trees as biological intelligent computers? In as sense as Artificial Intelligences? Harry knew that all Artificial Intelligences in the galaxy, maybe safe for the Cylons, had programs that forced them to listen to orders of their owners.

Were the Jurians forcing the same or similar 'programs' onto the Space Trees?

He breathed in deep.

After all he had seen and heard, it was most likely.

Harry moved closer to the tree and gently placed a hand on a patch of unburnt bark.

The Space Tree had most likely never known freedom. It had most likely never had known how to act on its own. It had never had any chance for something else.

Closing his eyes he placed the other hand on the bark as well.

He hung his head.

Once again he thought about his own life. The time before coming to Hogwarts, the time at Hogwarts, the time in slavery.

He felt like he had never actually been free himself.

Most of his life with his aunt and uncle he had been stuffed away under the stairs when he hadn't been at school or working.

In Hogwarts he had learned, but he had not really been able to get out and while he respected Dumbledore, the old wizard had manipulated him and everything around him. He hadn't really been free either.

And than there were the years as slave.

He breathed in deep and shook his head.

The last weeks after getting free, he had, in a sense for the first time, been really free. He could have taken a shuttle and gone far away, but he hadn't.

The words 'unwilling hero' came into his mind.

Maybe he could change something. Officially he was already the commander of the _Maru_ and Babylon 4. Maybe he should really take over the command over both.

He breathed in again and lifted his head. Opening his eyes the stared at the healthy bark of the heavily damaged tree.

Maybe he could free Earth. In a sense he already had allies.

He sighed.

But he could also fail to free Earth, destroying the Liberty Alliance and result in all people in it becoming slaves anyway.

Again he closed his eyes.

What should he do? Go back to Babylon 4 and hide under his bed, hoping everything would go away?

No.

It was not something he could do. Sure he could make wrong decisions. But he was only human. He doubted that he was every going to be able to really sleep if he didn't at least try.

He opened his eyes and looked back at the bark of the dying tree. Hadn't Neville talked about a spell that could cure plants in one of the last herbology classes?

His glance rose towards the crown of the tree and the brown and breaking leafs as he tried to remember the spell. Shinosuke had also told a little about taking care of plants. He had actually asked Harry to take care of a bonsai tree as part of his training, learning fine control of the Shin'bi way of doing magic.

He breathed in deep and concentrated as his mind worked on a way to try and do Neville's spell with Shin'bi magic.

He closed his eyes as he saw his hands glow slightly and pressed his hands against the bark of the tree, pushing the magic in his hands into the tree.

Then he stumbled back as the trees own magic reacted in some kind of a backslash and whirled his arms ato catch his own balance.

As he stood normally again he looked up towards the tree and smiled a little as he saw how a number of leafs had become green again. The magic of the tree itself had also strengthened a little.

Harry nodded to himself and slowly patted the undamaged bark.

"Looks like we both get a new chance, eh?" he said and for a moment it seemed as if he could feel the trees magic sending out positive feeling.

He chuckled a little and slowly sat down, resting against the patch of undamaged bark and closed his eyes.

"Harry?"

He blinked a few moment later at hearing Enesby's voice.

"Yes?" he asked and looked at the worried face of the AI of his ship.

"You okay?"

"I guess," Harry said and sighed.

He looked around and towards the hull of the Maru as it slowly moved again, sending another groan throught the bridge.

"I just wanted to let you know that this treeship belongs to you, according to Shin'bi law," Enesby noted." Any idea what to do with it?"

Harry blinked again.

"Uhm... I don't know..."

He breathed in deep and looked back up into the crown of the tree and at the few returned green leafs, as he tried to think of something.

Another groan of hulls made him look back at the _Maru_ again.

"Say..." he began." The _Maru_ is not much more than a bow without much in the way of reactors and engines, right?"

Enesby raised an eyebrow and looked strangely at him.

"Yes... And?"

Harry chuckled a little.

"And this treeship is lacking the crew quarters and brigde, correct?"

"Yes..." Enesby said slowly dropping one and raising the other eyebrow in a very good Spock imitation.

Harry smirked and slowly stood up, patting the tree again.

"And the treeship is mostly Quantum 3 technology."

"What is it that you want to say?" Enesby finally asked and frowned.

"Oh..." Harry said and laughed once." I just wondered if it would be possible to connect the remains of the Maru with the remains of this treeship and create a whole new ship from both parts."

"That is..."

Enesby stopped and blinked a few moments. He than looked at Harry, at the tree and at the _Maru_.

"... a fucking brilliant idea!"

Harry smirked.

"Yep. And while the ships are connected, it might be possible to take a good look at the technology of the shields, weapons and slipstream drive."

Enesby now openly smiled and laughed.

"That would be a great opportunity. Between the Colonials, the Shin'bi and the Ferrons there has to be a way to copy that technology. Not to mention the pure AWESOME of a Jurian hybrid ship."

Harry chuckled an than looked around. Than his smile dropped lightly and his sighed.

"Maybe it would be possible to turn this into some kind of park," he said and patted the bark of the tree again." I doubt we could move the tree."

"Anyway," Enesby noted after a few moments of silence as he looked at Harry and the tree." We were invited planet side by the Shin'bi. Some sort of victory party."

--

The tree hurt. It knew not much more than pain.

The flash if intense light and the fire after being rammed very closely had resulted in more than half of its mass being destroyed and damaged. Most of its leafs were destroyed and the loss of large parts of its trunk had resulted in a massive loss of memory.

Right now, its world was only pain, while what remained from its life flowed outwards and into the structure that surrounded the tree.

It seemed like eternity, knowing nothing but pain, having lost its own past until a warm glow dulled the pain go away. Life energy flowed back into its trunk, relinquishing its own supplies of energy.

The tree reacted on instinct at this warm and good feeling, it pushed parts of its own life energy back at the source of new energy, mixing and mingling it with its own.

To the still existing senses of the tree a small tickle of energy formed between the source of the new energy and its own, exchanging energy with each other, with the energy it received being slightly larger than the energy it gave.

New leaves formed rapidly in its crown, while the flow of energy outwards slowly dropped to a more manageable amount.

The new leafs of the tree shuddered slightly as its own repair mechanisms began to kick in. It would survive. It would grow back again.

And it would support the source of the new energy as well as it could.


	28. Chapter 28

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 27

--

Harry was too busy looking around with interest to really notice much of what was going on around him. Some time ago his shuttle had landed on the space port of Edo, the capital city of the Western Alliance and de facto capital city of Zaitaku.

As far as Harry knew the Shin'bi were fragmented into about three or four dozen different nations, but had formed a single UN like entity to deal with their pirate problem as well as presenting an united face towards aliens, not that there were many visiting anyway.

Shinosuke had told Harry some about the political situation and a little history of Zaitaku during the flight to the planet and Harry couldn't help but compare the Shin'bis political situation to the Cold War back home on Earth before the Third World War. Only that Zaitaku was covered to about seventy percent by land and as such had much more space and Earth.

There had been no less than five of what Earthers would call superpowers on Zaitaku before their pirate problem began and each had a good presence in space, along with several of the smaller nations. The first pirate raids had given them a common enemy and forced them to work together. Over the last about two hundred years they had grown closer while pretty much facing the galaxy at large and by now they were used to work together.

Shinosuke had also told Harry that the Shin'bi were far from being as homogeneous as most perceived them. While all Shin'bi nations and believe systems were based around the same things, they varied so much from nation to nation and even from area to area that they could be seen as being different.

The Western Alliance for example was a democratic nation with a liberal market, while the Peoples Community was pretty much a communistic nation, not much unlike the Soviet Union. The Kingdom of Hayusa was an absolutist monarchy with the neighboring Scattered Lands pretty much a loosely allied group of Anarchist communities. And with Mishima Heavy Industries there was a Corporate Nation.

And all five were the superpowers of Zaitaku.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep.

The air was fresh and clean, free of the pollution he remembered from London and for a moment he wondered if the air maybe wasn't cleaner than even at Hogwarts.

As he opened his eyes again and looked to the side the large slid open side of the building he was walking through allowed him to look over the large city of Edo.

It was different to London and most likely to any of the cities of Earth.

Simply put the city was green. Trees were everywhere, the buildings scattered far and between the trees and open park areas. Earlier he had seen more buildings than now, but then he had been flying over the city in a hover car. Most of the buildings of the city were build low and in such a way that they had disappeared fro view right now.

Traffic could bee seen in the air, either freely flying Shin'bi, hover cars and hover trucks flying as they wanted without any visible traffic guidance. Or even invisible. While being driven here Harry had nearly gotten heart attacks four times in a row, due to the adventurous way of the driver flying the car. It had been as if the driver had played a game of Quidditch against Slytherin without telling Harry.

Harry stopped as a maybe doberman sized shape landed in front of him. He blinked a few times as he stared at the animal in front of him. It was a miniature version of the Dragons he had seen back home, not unlike Norbert while he had been young. Only that this little dragon was gold in color and looked smoother than the Norwegian Ridgeback.

The dragon moved closet towards Harry and looked back at him, before sniffing at him.

Harry blinked again as the small dragon tilted its head lightly and walked around him, as if it was judging him.

"Don't panic, Harry," Shinosuke noted from further down the hallway." Its just a Kinhiryuu. They are mostly harmless."

Harry looked at Shinosuke as if his friend had grown a second head for a moment. Than he shook his head. He had to stop reading too much Douglas Addams between the 'Harry Potter' novels.

The golden Kinhiryuu didn't seem to like being called harmless and a small plume of flame appeared in front of Shinosuke's face for just a moment. He didn't even seem to flinch and instead chuckled.

"Come Harry," Shinosuke said and waved his hand to mention Harry to follow him again.

Harry eyes the small golden dragon for a moment before following his 'sensai', again wondering why exactly they had come here instead of the governmental palace of Edo, where the 'victory party' would happen about two or so hours later.

Harry didn't knew very much about Shin'bi culture, but he had heard Enesby comparing them to the Japanese and Jurians. The building looked very much like the Japanese Temple Jack had build in one corner of the central cylinder of Babylon 4, only that it was much larger.

Here and there Harry could see male and female Shin'bi go about their daily lives, doing whatever they did, but never coming closer to him or Shinosuke. Once or twice he had seen two Shin'bi fighting each other, while a third one sat next to a board, with the fighting dragonoids shouting something at the one at the board. It had looked strange...

A few moments later they arrived at a large door, more of a gate really. It was rather plain, like much of the things Harry had seen while being in Edo.

A noise made him look to the left, only to see that the golden dragon had followed him and again looked at him not unlike Fang, but at the same time like Mrs Norris when she had found a delinquent. It was a strange facial expression to see on a dragon and Harry felt uneasy about it. The feeling of uneasy was only strengthened at a strange stinging sensation that came and disappeared again in the blink of an eye.

Shinosuke breathed in deep and slowly opened the door.

"Kagome-sama?" he asked as the door had swung open half the way.

Harry heard someone coughing before an old sounding voice responded.

"Ahh... Shinosuke-kun, please come in and bring our guest with you."

Shinosuke looked at Harry for a moment before waving at him to follow through the open door.

The room behind the door was large, about as large as the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but it was mostly empty. The floor was hard wood floor, the walls that looked like they were made out of paper and Harry could see two large fireplaces in the middle of the room. Two fires burned brightly in these fireplaces, the left in a blue and the right in a green color and made Harry wonder why they weren't igniting the wood and paper around them.

An old Shin'bi sat between the two flames and Harry swallowed lightly.

The Shin'bi was female and looked extremely old. Older than Dumbledore. Older than anyone he had seen before. The woman was dressed in plain and wide garments made from white cloth that were different to any of the rather tight clothes he had seen on any other Shin'bi.

She was sitting on her knees in front of them, her arms placed on her knees, and her wings slightly spread out so that Harry could see the damaged wing membranes. The membranes of her left wing was completely missing, while the membranes of the right wing had large holes or hanging down in tattered stripes that made Harry wince.

Shinosuke bowed before the old woman and Harry did the same, knowing how to greet any Shin'bi.

"Please sit down," she said and pointed towards a pair of flat pillows.

For a moment Harry didn't know how exactly, but as Shinosuke knelt down on the pillow, he followed the example. The small golden dragon that had followed them was also sitting down and reminded Harry of a lion in that position.

He breathed in deep and again swallowed as the old Shin'bi looked at him. The old woman's eyes were milky white as if she was blind, and yet Harry felt like she was gazing into his soul.

Harry couldn't help but starting to sweat slightly.

"So this is the one?" the woman noted after a few moments and turned her piercing yet unseeing gaze towards Shinosuke.

"Yes, Kagome-sama," Shinosuke said and bowed slightly." At least I think he is."

Harry blinked and looked at Shinosuke.

"What?" he asked bewildered and earned a chuckle from Kagome-sama.

"Shinosuke-kun didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what? What are you talking about?"

The old woman chuckled again, but the chuckle turned into couching very fast. Harry was about to reach out to help, but Shinosuke put up a hand for a moment as the old woman patted her own chest to stop the uncontrolled coughs.

A few times she breathed in deep with closed eyes and sighed.

"Forgive me, but i'm slowly getting old," she noted dryly.

Than she looked back at Shinosuke.

"We are talking about a rather large set of oracles," she said and Harry could see a light smirk playing around her dragonoid lips." Oracles that had been made during the time of the Teachers for the first time. And were made by in just about every place on Zaitaku.

"The Great Temple has collected all these oracles. They talk about someone who would come to us in the hour when we would need him the most to lead our people to the stars. A person we generally call the Shogun."

She looked at Harry again and he breathed in sharply.

"A great many of these oracles have described this person. We know that he is not going to be a Shin'bi. He is going to be young and able to use mahou. He would come from the same world as the Teachers, through from another area of that world."

"Oh crap," Harry whispered and next to him the golden dragon raised its head to look at him.

Kagome-sama smirked a little more as her blind eyes locked with Harry again.

"He is marked by lightning by his greatest foe. He uses mahou even through he thought he had lost it. He was bound in chains but freed himself with a group of people who would become close friends and advisors."

"Crap," he said a little louder and paled.

"His presence turned beasts into men. He found a city of tongues among the stars. He fought the battle to save Zaitaku and destroyed his ship in the process. And a proud wild Kinhiryuu without any training."

Harry slowly turned his head and looked at the golden dragon next to him. The mini dragon had turned its own head. It looked back at him and seemed to grin like a cat that had just devoured a whole flock of canaries.

Slowly he turned his head back around and towards Shinosuke. The Shin'bi looked apologetic and slowly nodded.

Harry paled further as he turned his face back towards Kagome-sama, who grinned back at him.

"Yes," she said slowly." These oracles talk about you, Harry Potter. You are the Shogun we Shin'bi have waited for in the last millenium."

"Bloody Hell!" Harry managed to get out just a moment before his world turned black.

--

Slowly a large gray shape slowly crept through the depth of space. The large flight bay beneath the massive hull of the gray ship and the symbol on the dorsal hull made it clear that this ship was one of the few Colonial craft lucky enough to survive the massacre of the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.

It's name, _Thunderchild_, was painted down in while on the battle scarred hull as it crept towards its target under full EmCon not a single signal being send by its active sensors and wireless communication systems.

One of her Raptors had been able to identify this area of space at patrol area of the Cylons based from the Colonies and _Thunderchild_ lay here waiting for the massive Basestars to jump in on its patrol of Colonial Space, trying to find _Thunderchild_ and the ships of her small fleet.

Commander Franklin Grant paced the CIC, glaring at the display of the DRADIS. He was uncomfortable with leaving _Pretoria_ behind just with the unfinished _Hope_, some armed merchantmen, pirates and a flight of Mk III Vipers protecting it.

Sure _Pretoria_ happened to be an old Anchorage from the first Cylon War that had been... liberated by pirates and moved far into unknown space, and as such was armed, but he'd rather had some real firepower protecting the hundred thousand survivors.

But some said that the assault was the best defense. So he was taking the fight to the Cylons. Small operations against patrol lines away from _Pretoria_ were drawing them away for now, but as far as he could tell, the Cylons were by now moving towards _Pretoria_ anyway.

He breathed in deep.

They would need to run a few operations close to _Pretoria_ to draw them away.

"Passive DRADIS contact," Grant heard being called out and glanced towards his XO, Major Robert Pierce." Warbook identification positive. Its a Basestar."

"Only one?" Pierce asked and Grant eyed the DRADIS display again.

"Yes, only..." the technician stopped." Correction. Two Basestars."

"Looks like they are slowly learning," Grant noted dryly." Not bad."

He stood up straight and corrected the seat of his uniform jacket.

"Status of the package?"

"Armed and ready to be fired."

Grant smirked slightly. The package was an idea of old Teddy. It seemed to be an old trick from the First Cylon War. They had put a group of nuclear missiles together and placed it into space close to a place where they had hoped the Cylons to jump in. Than they attacked them and when the Cylons were 'distracted' by the attack the missiles would be launched from behind.

So far it had worked once. He just hoped that it would work a second time as well.

"I want targeting solutions," he said and turned towards the weapons technician." Get me the second one first."


	29. Chapter 29

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 28

--

He leaned back in the comfortable seat in one of the observation lounges of Babylon 4 and sighed. Outside he could see the spherical shape of the _Ironduke_ floating by the large windows of the lounge for just a moment.

Marcus closed his eyes for a moment and absentmindedly rubbed his left shoulder. He winced at the slight flash of pain that ran through the shoulder as he touched the tender flesh of the amputation wound. He breathed in deep and cursed silently.

The battle of Zaitaku had happened about two month ago and he had thought that the wound would have healed enough that it wasn't much of a problem touching it. But no, the wound was still tender and the Ferron medics had told him that the wound needed at least another month to heal enough that they could fit a cybernetic arm to his shoulder.

At the moment it was packed into gaze and other padding as there was a metal extension grafted to his skeleton that would later support his new arm and act as interface.

It had been interesting how fast the Ferrons had been able to get into Salasian anatomy and biology that they could build cybernetic replacement limbs. At least they had some groundwork done with the cloned tissue and the cognitive implants in his frontal lobes.

He opened his eyes again and watched at _Ironduke_ floated by the windowpane again. His ship and half of his small fleet of 'defectors' were in orbit around Liberty and bolstered the defense of the planet, while the other half was orbiting Zaitaku. The orders of Princess Ariel had been very precise about that.

He chuckled slightly. His small fleet had been able to integrate into the Liberty Alliance very well and there had not been any real problems. The least problems had been the Shin'bi and the Colonials, both having a very professional military. The Ferrons didn't really have a dedicated military, but they made it up with being able to come to well thought out solutions for problems.

That left the Dilgar. It was not really a thing that sat well with Marcus or any of the Salasians. While there hadn't been a state of war with the Dilgar during their War with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and later the Minbari, the war crimes were still in the military minds of the galaxy. But they tried their best to work with the Dilgar.

"Captain Marcus?"

Marcus turned around towards the voice. A Colonial in dark clothing was walking up towards him.

"Yes?"

The Colonial smiled and stopped next to him.

"May I sit down, Captain? I would like to ask you something."

Marcus raised an eyebrow but nodded after a moment.

"Why not, Mr...?"

The Colonial smiled and slowly sat down in the seat next to Marcus.

"I am Brother Cavil, Captain," the Colonial said." I'm one of the few remaining Colonial priests."

Marcus nodded and stretched slightly.

"I was never a really religious person," Marcus noted." If it is that what you want to ask me."

Cavil chuckled and shook his head.

"No," he said." Far from it, Captain. I'm not about to try to convert you to the Lords of Kobol. Through I guess I could try anyway."

Marcus snorted.

"No," Cavil continued." I would like to know something else."

Cavil turned and looked at Marcus and Marcus could tell that Cavil was a little put of by him. Not really surprising considering that the Colonials never had any contact with extra-colonial life.

"Ask away," Marcus said and leaned back, looking at the Colonial priest.

"I'd like to know how the Cylons would fare out there," Cavil asked and pointed out of the window pane." Out there in the galaxy. Most Colonials wonder about that know that we know that the galaxy is full of sentient life."

Marcus raised an eyebrow and leaned back into his seat, looking out of th window pane and at the shape of the _Pride of Ferrol_ passing it.

"Not very well," he said after a few moments and breathed in deep." As far as I understand they don't have shields or even simple energy weapons."

"Not that I know of," Cavil noted and looked at Marcus.

"I'm not really sure about the Cylons in general, other than that they are artificial intelligences and were able to create biological clones of some sort. And that they are based around Colonial computer technologies."

Marcus shook his head.

"But even that won't really do them any good."

Marcus snorted.

"Right now I could tell you twenty races out there with electromagnetic pulse weapons that could make short work of Colonial computers, including those of the Cylons."

He stopped for a moment and sighed. Outside _Ironduke_ was once again passing the window.

"Robots and general AIs are not considered to be real intelligences in most places of the galaxy, even through most are able to feel emotions. They are simply machines owned by someone ad ordered around. Most are programmed with inhibitors to prevent them from raising up against their owners. And the Cylons...

"They are simply one more group of Artificial Intelligences and the race 'lucky' enough to run across them and to manage to reprogram a few, would be able to get very lucrative trade goods."

Marcus shook his head and turned back to face Cavil.

"And the Bio-Cylons... Do you have any idea how large the market for identical clones is?"

Cavil looked back at Marcus with a raised eyebrow.

"So you are saying that the Cylons would pretty much go back to being to the situation before the First Cylon War?"

Marcus nodded.

"Yes. Just this time they would not be able to get out of it."

Cavil slowly leaned back into his seat and turned to face the window pane. He was silent for a few moments before he stood up again.

"Thank you for answering my question, Captain," he said and held out his hand to Marcus.

Marcus looked at the hand for a moment before reaching out himself to shake the hand.

"Not a problem, Mr. Cavil. I hope I was able to help you."

Cavil nodded.

"You were. I guess we might see each other later on, Captain."

"So do I, Mr. Cavil."

Cavil nodded agai with a thin smile and slowly left the lounge.

Not far from the entrance a Jack slowly left the scene after having heard everything.

--

"What, me?"

Halo blinked a few times and looked at Admiral Adama. Adama looked back at Halo ovver the rims of his glasses.

"Yes, _Captain _Agathon," Adama said and slowly removed his glasses and folded them." You are aware that we only have very few officers."

Halo nodded. Even through the settlement down on Liberty had some of the survivors, as well as a number of aliens!, come into the Remains of the Colonial fleet, the number of officers was not going to grow as fast as the need for new officers.

"We might get a few exchange officers from our new allies," Adama continued." But I'll be rotting in Hades if I allow one of them commanding a Colonial ship."

"But me, sir?" Halo asked again.

Sure he was positively surprised, but he never had thought that this would happen.

"What happened to me being a 'toaster fracker'?"

Adama narrowed his eyes and slowly unfolded his glasses again.

"You are a Colonial Officer, Captain," he said." And aside from that... little fact... you are a good officer. Without the... War... you might have made it to CAG already."

Halo decided that he really didn't like being looked at like that over the rims of Adama's glasses. It made him feel like he was in school again and a teacher scolded him.

"I am giving you a change, Halo. _Leonidas_ is a new ship and we will use her and her sister ships to free the Colonies."

Halo once again swallowed. The _Leonidas_ was the first of about ten ships that were going to be build by _Hephaestus_, the Colonial Dry Dock. Actually she was going to be finished in a week, two weeks after the keel had been laid. The Lenoidas class was a heavily modified version of the Canopus class, incorporating all the new technologies that came from the Allies, had been reverse engineered from systems of the treeship the crew of the Maru had captured during the Battle of Zaitaku two month ago or had been developed purely by chance, like the Fortress strength shields of Chief Laird that were only three times the size of a Raptor.

Adama frowned and sighed a moment later.

"But its not only that," he said." The _Leonidas_ is going to be an experiment. You're crew won't only be human. About half of them are going to be Dilgar, Ferrons and Shin'bi. Your XO is going to be a Shin'bi."

Halo swallowed.

"How large is the crew?"

Adama smirked.

"About fifty crewmen and four officers. And all of the officers are aliens."

"Ah, frack..."

--

Slowly Harry walked through the hallways of the old _Maru_ and towards the treeship. Enesby was floating and a doberman sized dragon next to him.

Over the last few weeks since the Battle of Zaitaku had been busy for him. Mainly it had been that way because the Shin'bi had decided that he was their leader and that he had to tour Zaitaku to meet the people in change, while Shinosuke and Kagome had escorted him.

At first he had not been very supportive for the idea of being the Shogun, but he hadn't been able to help himself but growing into the role. He couldn't quite explain why, but it had not been because it had been expected of him, but because he had wanted it.

He still didn't quite know what it meant to be the Shogun, but he was sure that he would eventually get it.

And than there was the miniature golden dragon, Jim, as Harry had called him. Being bonded to Jim was another thing Harry hadn't liked at first, but eventually he had gotten it into his own thick skull that the miniature dragon had wanted to bond with him. Why, Harry didn't know.

While he had toured Zaitaku and gotten used to be the Shogun and with that essentially the leader of the Shin'bi, through mostly the military, Enesby had managed to get the _Maru_ and the treeship back to Liberty where he and Jack had worked to combine both ships, while Ferron and Shin'bi scientists had managed to reverse engineer several of the key Quantum 3 technologies of the treeship, even through they were only able to build rather simple, but working, copies.

Shields and slipstream drive had been on the highest priority and Laird, the Chief of _Pegasus_ and now Head Technical Advisor of the Quorum, had managed to enhance the simple Quantum 3 shield with a Hyperlight Core, just like he had done it with the Dilgar shield generators to get them to Fortress level strength. _Pegasus_ and _Galactica_ had been the first ships to receive the first Hyper-Shield generators as they were called.

Harry had seen the shields on the _Pegasus_ as she had jumped from Liberty to Zaitaku to test the shield strength. They had glowed a deep blue and taken quite some punishment.

By now most ships of the Alliance were fitted with the new Hyper-Shield generators, through only the heavy vessels carried Quantum 3 shields.

"Good work," Harry noted as they crossed over into the treeship part of the large kit bashed vessel.

"Thanks, boss."

The passage from the corridor of the _Maru_ into the corridor of the treeship had been smooth and Harry chuckled a little.

"What about the tree?" he wondered and eyed Enesby for a moment.

"It has gotten better," Enesby noted and smirked." You can still see the damage, but its not going to die any time soon or even later."

Harry nodded and followed the now wodden corridor only to end up in the large hall that had once been the command center of the treeship and had now been turned into some sort of park. Something was off however.

"Say..." Harry made and blinked a few times." Jack was working on this wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was..."

Harry narrowed his eyes and slowly walked towards the construction of metal, tubes and white plastic that hung from the ceiling of the park, not too far away from the tree.

"Any idea what this is?" he wondered and slowly placed his hand on the lower part of the strange construction.

"I..." Enesby started only to have his holographic eyes grow to twice their size." Wha..."

Hary blinked rapidly as the construction began to move slightly and pulled his hand away. A distorted female sounding voice suddenly filled the air.

"This was a triumph..."

"What the hell..."

Enesby tumbled through the air for a moment as a guitar began to play, making it clear that the voice was singing.

"I'm making a note here: A huge success."

A blue eye like object in the construction came to life and Harry blinked again.

"It took over my shipbased systems!" Enesby shouted out." The frikking tree took over the ship!"

"It's hard to overstate my satisfaction."

Harry looked at the construction and than as Enesby who did the same, first looking at the construction hanging from the ceiling and than at Harry.

"JACK!" they both called out at the same time, drowning out the next line of the constructs song.


	30. Chapter 30

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 29

--

The all too familiar sensation of being grabbed by his stomach and pulled through the eye of a needle came and washed over him.

He closed his eyes and grabbed the rail on the small central plot.

"Jump completed," came the voice of Ensign Astral Mylar from her seat at the tactical console." All systems read green."

Captain Karl 'Helo' Agathon looked over towards the squat Ferron woman for a moment before nodding.

"Status of the Slipstream systems?"

"Still down, sir. The Quantum Interference has decreased by two point three percent."

"Looks like Kobol is the source of the Interference after all," Lieutenant Kijoshi noted and a slightly superior smirk played around his dragonic features.

Helo rolled his eyes.

"Astral, do the usual scans and run a diagnosis on the shield systems."

"Aye, sir."

Kijoshi raised an eyebrow.

"The closer we come to the Colonies the more paranoid you get, Helo."

Helo rolled his eyes again.

"I just don't want to get caught with my pants around my ankles," he said and looked at the plot." You saw how the shields shortened out at Kobol."

Kijoshi remained silent for a moment and also looked down at the flat display that worked as plot in the rather small Command Center of the _Leonidas_.

The gunship, through it would be seen as heavy frigate anywhere else in the galaxy, was just two month old and had just finished her trials two weeks ago. It was the first ship that had been build as part of a joint development plan by the members of the Liberty Alliance and it still showed a good amount of bugs in its systems as it combined a good amount of technologies that weren't always one hundred percent compatible.

The about two hundred fifty meters long space ship had been designed using the Canophus class as a base and everyone had stuffed new systems into it, limiting the available space for the crew. The pair of outrigger pods on both sides of the hull were larger so that the systems needed for the four plasma guns could be placed inside of them. The single gravity beam emitter ran down the spine of the ship and ate away more space, just like the pair of torpedo launchers designed to fire Ferron gravity torpedoes, but only one at a time.

The gravitically enhanced main engines, the Slipstream drive and the Hyperlight Core took away most of the rear section of the ship, while the shield was build into the prow of the ship and flickered every time the main gun fired.

Together with the crew, the main computer systems, the rather powerful Shin'bi sensory suits, the communication equipment and the other systems _Leonidas_ rather small cargo deck only allowed to load consumerables for about four weeks, compared to the Canophus twelve weeks. Having been able to fit consumerables for eight weeks had been a challenge, especially since _Leonidas_ had to carry a Raptor and four Vipers. It had been a really tight fit.

"When do you think we'll encounter Cylons?"

Helo looked down on the plot and the star chart displayed on it.

"We're in the system where the fleet found the Tylium asteroid," he noted." Considering the Cylon mining base, we might find some."

"Contact," Astral called out." Unknown contact just jumped in. Distance one hundred thousand on vector three-one-one point two-six-six. We're just outside extreme DRADIS range."

"Put it on the plot."

The display on the plot changed, showing a tactical map of the surrounding space with _Leonidas_ in the center. An orange dot showed the unknown contact, while a thing orange line showed its course vector that lead the contact into the Asteroid field where _Galactica_ had found the tylium asteroid.

"Cylon?" Helo asked and turned towards Astral for a moment.

"No idea at the moment, sir," the Ferron woman answered." The computer is still matching the contact with the war book."

Helo eyed Kijoshi for a moment.

"You'd think that faster computers could run through the war book faster."

"Maybe through the old Colonial war book," he said with a snort." Not through the new one."

"Match found," Astral said a moment later." War book identification eighty percent positive. Defender class Battle Cruiser. But there are a few mismatches."

A small display popped up in the plot, showing a 3D representation of the _Defender_ as reference.

Helo looked up towards Kijoshi. At first he hadn't liked the Shin'bi, but he guessed that had been more the fact that he hadn't been used to aliens being in the Colonial Fleet. Well, not having meet any alien before Liberty, period. Now, two month after getting the command of _Leonidas_ and about four month after the Battle of Zaikatu, he liked the Shin'bi.

Like Helo he was a rather easy going officer and they worked well together. That Kijoshi was more or less fresh from an additional course of the Hayusa Military Academy, was not much of a problem either, considering that Helo himself was fresh to the command of a warship himself.

"What do you think?" he wondered.

"We should take a closer look," Kijoshi noted." I'd use one of the recon drones."

Helo chuckled. The recon drones were one of Jacks ideas. Based on the Cam Bots of Babylon 4, Jack had build a very cheap, but useful drone that had a very low sensory cross section and not very likely to be seen.

"Okay," Helo noted and turned towards Astral." Ensign, launch a recon drone and direct it to our contact. I want full stealth on the DRADIS."

Astral nodded and began to work on her console. A few moments later the launch of the drone could be heard through the superstructure of _Leonidas_, showing that there hadn't been much space for vibration dampeners in the hull, making every day operations rather noisy.

"Drone on the way."

Helo nodded.

"Good, now keep an eye out on the asteroid field and anyone jumping in."

--

Commander Franklin Grant breathed in deep as the familiar feeling of the Jump came and faded.

This was the furthest they had jumped away from _Pretoria_, but this operation was the most important yet and thankfully the station wasn't defenseless. It had needed some work on the empty hull of the _Hope_, but in the end they had managed to get the ship back to being combat ready. There were also the hulls of a pair of Persephone class destroyers that were currently being put back together with parts salvaged from various sites of battle.

"Jump completed. Everything is silent."

Grant stepped back from the plot and looked around. Than he grabbed the phone of the 1MC and pressed the alarm button.

A short alarm went through the corridors and rooms of the ship and crewmen stopped, looking towards the next speaker.

"This is Commander Grant," he said." We are now moving into the most important mission we have done since the Liberation of the _Antares_. You all heard that there is a shortage of Tylium since the Cylons have found our mining operation in Calibra through our dear Joshua Biggs and his news broadcast three days ago."

Grant could hear some snickers going to the crewmen and women manning the workstations of _Thunderchild_ and shook his head.

"One week ago, one of our long range scouts has found a source of Tylium in this system. Its a very large deposit that can support us for several years to come. However..."

He stopped for a moment.

"...the Cylons are sitting right on top of it. It is a new station, but it had already mined a large part of the deposit. But compared to the Cylon mining stations in other systems, this one is very lightly defended and we can take it over.

"And that is what we are going to do. We are going in, destroy the Cylon mining station and move in with the _Antares_. _Antares_, her flight of Vipers and the _Orwell_ are waiting ten lightyears away in interstellar space and will jump in to mine the remaining Tylium as fast as possible. Than we will disappear."

Grant stopped again and once again looked at the crewmen in Command.

"We will be victorious. If we are not, we will loose everything. Grant out."

It was silent for a moment, before Pierce broke the silence.

"Moving speech, Frank," he noted dryly." But will it work?"

Grant shook his head.

"I have no fracking idea."

The two men looked at each other for a moment before Grant turned around.

"Launch all Vipers and Canis'," he ordered." Ready all weapon and point defense systems. We're going in."

--

"Do they really think that we're going to fall for the same thing twice?" Doral wondered out loud as he glared at the DRADIS display in front of him.

The whole asteroid field had been littered with Raiders that were only scanning the area around them and notified the mining station about any change.

_Galactica_ had destroyed the previous mining station and they had only known it a week later as a tanker had come back empty and with the news of the destroyed station. A Basestar that had been send to the remains of the station had found out that _Galactica_ had used the time to mine and refine about one quarter of the surface deposits, an amount that would keep the _Galactica_'s fleet going for years.

They had chosen to rebuild the mining station and secure it another way. Knowing that the Colonials might come back to get more Tylium from this known asteroid, they had opted for setting up a trap.

Cavil looked over to Doral.

"Some of us would," he said, getting in a jab at the fact that Doral had called out for not upgrading the defense of the asteroid, because 'the Colonials wouldn't come back'.

Apparently he had been wrong.

"It's not _Galactica_," Simon noted and looked at the display as it showed some camera footage from the Raider that had found the Colonial ship." It looks like a Colonial Defender."

Doral and Cavil looked at Simon.

"So its not _Galactica_ and her fleet," Cavil noted." But our dear friend from Colonial space. He's far away from his base."

"Where ever that base is," Doral said acidly as he glared at Cavil." Some people still haven't found it."

Cavil turned to glare at Doral with half closed eyes.

"Please," Simon said and held his hands up, ready to get between the two other models." Three is responsible for that."

"I recall her being less than spectacular with _Galactica_..."

The three sole humanoid Cylons on the station glared at each other for a long moment.

"Launching Vipers and gunboats... are coming... Vector three-zero-five point... They will bring the end... Two-the-six... The end of the crusade to begin a new... End of Line."

The three looked at the Hybrid of the station for a moment.

"Launch the messenger first Raptor," Cavil said after a moment." The Basestars need to be ready for the jump."

--

"Specialist Dra'vo," Helo said and looked towards his Communication Officer." What is the status of our communication?"

The Dilgar looked down on his console and made a few entries with the keyboard and the trackball. Over the last few weeks he had needed to get used to the strange input systems, but now he had nearly mastered them.

"Wireless is nominal," he noted and looked up at Helo." Slipstream communication is still down, but the Tachyon com is ready. I have all channels available over Tachyon."

Helo nodded.

"Get me a Gold Channel to Admiral Adama," he said and glanced down on the plot display again.

The arrival of the _Pegasus_ had shown that there had been more survivors of the short and rather one sided war with the Cylons and now the Defender just one hundred thousand klicks away showed that some were rather active.

"Looks like there are some Cylons in the area," Kijoshi noted and pointed at a few small objects Helo had thought to be small asteroids at first.

Helo narrowed his eyes and moved his fingers over the plot, zooming in one of the contacts. It remained an asteroid, but it seemed like a distorted Colonial energy source was sitting on top of it.

"Sneaky bastards," Helo said and frowned.

"Looks like our dear Defender is walking straight into a trap."

Helo looked down onto the plot and the zoomed image.

"In that case we might get some actual fight experience for the crew," he noted after a moment." Don't you think so?"

Kijoshi just grinned an evil dragonic grin that made Helo want to hide in a dark corner.


	31. Chapter 31

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 30

--

Admiral William 'Husker' Adama sat in his office close to the Command Information Center of _Galactica_ and sighed. Now that there was some resemblance of normal living, paperwork started to gather on his desk. For a moment he glared at the pile of paperwork before taking the next of the folders and opened it.

It was surprising how much paperwork could be generated by two battlestars, one battle cruiser and an incomplete squadron of five gunboats, minus the _Leonidas_ as she was on a mission back to the colonies. And even _Leonidas_ generated paperwork.

He glanced at the folder in front of him, for a moment wishing he could just set the whole paperwork on flame and forget about it.

It was strange, six month ago he would have called everyone believing in aliens insane. And now? Now he was once again allowing an alien to become a member of what remained of the Colonial fleet.

He signed the sheets of the folder and closed it, setting it aside on the other pile of folders, thank the gods the one that contained the folders that he had already worked through. But the other pile didn't seem to get any smaller. It was like the 'In' pile procreated while he wasn't looking.

He shook his head and grabbed the next folder.

It happened to be a report on the effectiveness of _Hephaestus_, the kit bashed Colonial Dry Dock. The Ferrons had upgraded the manufacturing systems so that the machines could use the Ferrons raw materials that came from the Liberty Asteroid Field. It had increased the production rate by one hundred percent, allowing to produce more ships, Vipers and Raptors twice as fast. On the other hand it increased the need of crew men and, more important, officers.

And you could only draw so much officers from about fifty thousand Colonials. That meant to recruit more aliens. And he knew that most of these recruited aliens would come from either the Ferrons or the Shin'bi, with the majority coming from the Shin'bi.

Sure there were the Dilgar as well, but they couldn't put more officers and crewmen into the Colonial Fleet when they had their own. And the small Dilgar fleet had just finished upgrading their own ships.

Adama knew that they would mostly remain here at Liberty. Five years of fleeing from certain destruction had left them with the need to make themselves at home somewhere without having to defend themselves. He could understand and respect that.

He and the Colonial fleet however couldn't do that. With the missions to Caprica and the rescue of Resistance members they knew that there still were humans back home, fighting the Cylons.

He breathed in and placed the folder onto another pile.

That was the reason for the mission of the Leonidas. And the reason why Baltar was proving to be worth less as a president than everyone had expected. He had only won because he had told everyone that they would settle down on Liberty, or 'New Caprica' back than, and because Roslin had tried to 'correct' the election result in her favor.

He smirked a little. Baltar now showed that he wasn't really a politician. All he could do was talk and the like, but eventually he would fold in to the Quorum, the Fleet and the people.

And all that was mostly because of Zarek, who pretty much undermined Baltar's position. Zarek had leaked so many things to the press that the public opinion was moving towards the Fleet. Everyone knew how well _Pegasus_ had done with her first upgrades in the Battle of Zaitaku. Now everyone wanted to go back to the Colonies and retake them.

But even while some people were joining the fleet, others didn't. He had barely enough men to crew the new ships that rolled out. And even less of them knew how to handle the ships. Sure, there was a small military training camp of the Colonial Fleet down on Liberty, but he lacked personal to teach.

It made him feel like Sisyphus trying to juggle personal.

And it really didn't help that some of the promising candidates had been whisked away by these Space Marines for their insane training. He shuddered at the mere thought of that training. He had seen it on a documentary by D'Anna Biers. Sure he didn't think much of her, but the end result remained the same.

The sound of the opening hatch to his office made him look up from the next piece of paper.

"Admiral?"

He slowly lowered the folder and looked at the Shin'bi, he had made his own adjutant, mostly to get the other members of the crew to work with them as smoothly as possible. It was strange to see the dragonoids walk around in Colonial uniforms, especially because they were rather uncomfortable in them.

"Yes, Lieutenant Ito?"

Ito pulled himself up a little straighter.

"_Leonidas_ reported in, sir. Captain Agathon wants to talk to you."

"I'll be right there," he said and closed the folder, placing it back on the 'In' pile.

Taking a look at a logistics report could wait.

He pushed his chair back and rose, following Ito back to the CIC.

The Combat Information Center had remained mostly untouched by the refit with the new technology. There were a number of new computer systems installed.

Adama didn't like that these computers were networked, but, according to the resident AIs, the network was set up with multiple firewalls and systems that could be disconnected from each other with the flick of a switch.

Another modification were the holographic displays and a plot table with integrated display, but all in all the CIC looked the same as it had before the refit.

Adama nodded towards Lieutenant Miller, the communications officer.

"Put Captain Agathon on the speakers," he said and Miller nodded, speaking a few words into his microphone.

"_Galactica_, this is _Leonidas_," came the slightly distorted voice of Helo over the speakers.

The connection was running over the new Tachyon Arrays of _Galactica_, currently the only way to communicate using FTL methods. It seemed like Kobol was surrounded by a null-Quantum zone that prevented slipstream and reduced the effectiveness of Quantum based technology.

That Helo's voice was laden with static and distorted was because _Leonidas_ needed to use a low bandwidth digital connection to get a real time connection with _Galactica_.

"Here is Admiral Adama, Captain," Adama said after a moment." You're outside of your scheduled time."

"I know, sir," was Helo's answer." We have run into something of a problem."

Adama sighed and slowly removed his glasses to massage his temples.

"What kind of problem?"

"We're in the Thylium system right now, where _Galactica_ found the Thylium asteroid."

"I take it that the Cylons are back in the system?"

"Yes, sir. And... We ran across a Defender class battle cruiser making its way towards the Thylium asteroid."

Adama looked up towards the speaker and knew that a good number of crew men looked up as well.

"Can you repeat that?"

"We have positive TADAR contact with a Defender class battle cruiser. We are keeping out of range at the moment and I have ordered a drone to take a closer look."

Adama smiled and looked around to look at a number of smiling faces. Than his face sobered and he looked at the plot, noting the tactical display on it.

A small window popped up, displaying the course and distance to the Thylium system. Right now _Galactica_ would only need about four jumps to that systems, while _Leonidas_ had been ordered to take many small jumps to get there.

"But?" Adama asked, knowing that there was more to come.

"It seems that the Cylons have laid a trap for us, should we come back. And I think that the Defender is running straight into that trap."

Adama cursed silently. A louder curse made him turn around to Tigh, who had just entered CIC.

"I want to keep back for now, sir. We are not sure if we aren't dealing with a bigger trap in form of the Defender. But I want to ask for permission to assist and contact the Defender of they are Colonials."

Adama looked at Tigh for a moment.

"You have your permission, Captain. Hopefully you'll find another Rag Tag Fleet."

"Hopefully sir. _Leonidas_ out."

The speakers crackled and Adama stood up straight. He had a slight smirk on his face.

"Looks like you can put our dear Mr President down another peck," Tigh noted and chuckled.

--

Harry sighed and leaned back, looking at the main screen and tried to ignore Enesby and GLaDOS bickering.

The two of them had been bickering at each other since GLaDOS had pretty much come online and took over all on board systems of the Hybrid ship of the remains of the _Maru_ and the Jurian treeship. Enesby had been glad that he had switched to the Ferron build remote a few weeks earlier, loosing the inhibitors that had still been present in the old remote hardware.

Right now all that remained of Enesby was his remote, one of the reason he had this strange love-hate relationship with the new mind of the ship.

Of course Jack had been responsible for the whole mess. He had build a new computer core for the hybrid ship and connected it with the systems of both the treeship and the _Maru_ and stored a good amount of data about the 'original' GLaDOS, from the computer game Portal in the new computer. Once it had come online, the amnesiac tree had latched to the data in the new core, took on the identity of GLaDOS and than took over the whole ship.

Harry had played the game before the new core activated and had been positively surprised that GLaDOS was far from being 'evil'. Sure, she tended to be less than honest. And what made it worse, she adored Harry and was willing to do anything he wanted.

Not really something he had wanted from the Space Tree. At least the Tree had survived its brush with dead and now grew stronger and stronger with every day.

And with the Tree, the ship became stronger. One month ago Ferron and Shin'bi engineers had finished the 'operation' of connecting the remains of the _Maru_ and the Jurian Treeship, resulting in an interesting design. The bow half of the _Maru_ was sitting between the split bow of the treeship and you could see the improvised nature of the connection at the sudden break between the conventional armor of the _Maru_ and the wooden armor of the treeship.

However, it worked and Harry was glad for the Ferrons molecular glue that had been able to connect the metal of the _Maru_ with the wook of the treeship.

Of course the resulting ship had needed a new name.

Harry had decided to call her _Enterprise_.

He chuckled a little. There wasn't much you could do wrong with that name. Or as Jack said...

'Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named _Enterprise_.'

He eyes Enesby and GLaDOS for a moment. GLaDOS had a few brand new remote. It was about the size of a football and looked like a large eyeball. With handles on the side. It was unnerving to see them hover through the ship.

He shook his head and sighed again, looking back at the main display and the globe of Liberty on it.

In the last four month Liberty had become very popular with the Shin'bi. With new and faster FTL available to them a good amount of ships had arrived at Liberty, carrying colonists. By now the number of Shin'bi colonists had grown to one million and a good number of them was spreading out over the whole planet, founding small communities and colonies nearly everywhere. Through one particularly large area had been claimed by Aleksandr and his Space Wolfs as a training camp for new Space Marines.

Harry had visited the camp once or twice, after Aleksandr had asked him to. Both times it had been the time for a new group of recruits to be initiated as Blood Claws.

Harry had watched how Aleksandr and the others had pretty much bitten the recruits, remembering that they used to be 'normal' werewolves and than the transformation of the recruits. It had been similar to the transformation he had seen on Aleksandr as he had transformed from werewolf to Space Wolf.

Through not all transformation had been similar. While the Colonials and, surprisingly the Ferrons, had turned into normal Space Wolfs, even through blue ones for the Ferrons, the Shin'bi and Dilgar hadn't.

The Shin'bi were pretty much dragons in Harry's mind, and the Space Wolf transformation had them look much more feral, much more like the dragons he knew of. But they still had remained mostly recognizable as Shin'bi.

Harry had been a little more concerned about the transformation of the Dilgar. Mostly because they had pretty much ended up looking like humanoid versions of saber toothed tigers.

But that wasn't the only thing that made Harry nervous. The Space Marines had started to build a large cathedral. Sure that wasn't really much of a problem, but a large number of statues looked much like Harry in a very heavy piece of powered armor.

He shook his head.

Bad enough that the Shin'bi had started to treat him a bit like a god, but that...

Harry stretched a little and looked back at Enesby and GLaDOS for a moment be fore looking around on the bridge. He had taken the bridge of the _Maru_ as being the bridge of the new ship and right now the new crew was mostly made up of Shin'bi.

As far as Harry knew the Admiralty of the Zaitaku Armed Forces had ordered their best to be the crew of the Enterprise, not really surprising to Harry, considering that he was now officially the leader of the Shin'bi. Thankfully he had been able to tell the 'old' leaders of the Shin'bi into remaining in power.

Enesby had noted that Harry should delegate things and let others take care of the everyday business.

It had been a good idea. But Harry knew that should he order the Shin'bi to do something, they would do it. It was a little unnerving. But he guessed that he would soon be in a position to get back home and liberate Earth.

Sometimes the ends justified the means.

That was something Dumbledore had thought him, even through it was just in those novels.

He shuddered. He couldn't believe that this author woman had put him up with Ginny. She felt like a sister for Merlin's sake!

That reminded him and he grinned.

He still had to get ready for that date with Ariel...


	32. Chapter 32

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 31

--

Helo stared at the display and the image the stealthed drone was transmitting back to _Leonidas_.

The ship in the center of the display looked very much like a Defender, but there were a few changes on the superstructure, like additional larger gun turrets above the flight pod.

"Get me a zoom on the frontal hull," he ordered and a moment later the image zoomed in.

His eyes narrowed a bit as he looked for the place where the name of the ship should be. He needed a few moment to make out the name as the drones camera focus sharpened the image.

"_Thunderchild_," he said and looked up towards Astral." Do we have that ship in the database?"

The Ferron tactical officer raises a brushy eyebrow at him, but than nodded.

"_Thunderchild_, prototype of the Defender Block III," she said," Was designated to become a part of Battlestar Group 62 under Admiral Cain after commercing her trials. Presumed destroyed."

Helo eyed her for a moment.

"Like the rest of the fleet," he said with a frown." Okay, distance of the drone to _Thunderchild_?"

"A few kilometers."

Helo scratched his chin and than eyed Kijoshi.

"The drones are of your people," he said." Can they latch onto other ships?"

The Shin'bi raises an eyebrow himself and than nodded.

"They can," he answered." Why?"

"I want to keep a closer look at the ship," he said.

"_Thunderchild_ is launching Vipers and other small craft," Astral noted and turned." They are also increasing their acceleration."

"Drop the drone to _Thunderchild_'s hull and keep a close eye on the Cylons," Helo said and looked up." Helm, take us in. ECM, I want full stealth. Flight, get our Vipers into space under full stealth."

"Ready for the other shoe to drop?" Kijoshi wondered and crossed his arms as he glanced down on the plot.

"More like waiting for the Cylons to drop a few nukes," Helo said after a moment." But we still don't know if the crew of _Thunderchild_ aren't skinjobs."

Kijoshi chuckled lightly.

"You are paranoid," he said." You know that?"

"Being paranoid," Helo noted with a grin," doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you. Especially in this case..."

The Shin'bi nodded.

Several decks beneath the Command Information Center of _Leonidas_, powerful gravitic projectors created external gravitic fields, shaped like wedges while the gravitic systems of the Viper MK VII created field counter acting the wedges. Gravitic energy in the fields was transformed into kinetic energy as the fields repelled each other.

Half of the kinetic energy was transferred to the Vipers accelerating them out of the cargo hold of _Leonidas_ twice as fast at the catapults of a Viper carrier, while the rest of the energy was transfered into the gravitic generators and through them into the hull, each launch creating a loud bang that was heard through the entire hull.

--

Heavy Raider 162 was a little different to its brethren. It had been designed to be a Command Raider, with its troop carrying capacity being sacrificed to house sophisticated sensory systems to act as the Cylon equivalent of the Colonial Raptor.

The Cylons had designed it a little different to the Colonial Raptors. Alongside with the standard sensory systems like DRADIS and other electronic sensors, Heavy Raider 162 was equipped with powerful optical systems designed to perceive the whole band of the visible and close to visible wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum.

As such a number of domes were showing out of its hull, scanning the space around it with optical, IR and UV cameras. The optics and digital cameras of these sensors were designed to be powerful enough to see a burning candle over a distance of three light seconds and to be interferometric linked with each other.

Heavy Raider 162 needed note more than ten seconds for one complete scan of the entire space around it, processing several Pentabyte worth of data.

So even running silent and under full EmCon, Heavy Raider 162 saw _Thunderchild_ moving closer. The massive Colonial Battle Cruiser was a brightly burning light on its IR sensors and very visible in the visible spectrum of light.

Only a part of its inhibited consciousness was directing itself to tracking _Thunderchild_, another part processing the passive DRADIS data it was getting from the various Raiders that lie in waiting. Most of their systems were powered down, invisible to DRADIS, but not to Heavy Raider 162.

The rest of its consciousness was idle, going through various calculations to try and preempt _Thunderchilds_ path.

Heavy Raider 162 stopped after a while, one of the scanning cycles having presented it with an anomaly. There was another heat source burning brightly about a lightsecond distant to it. It checked its other sensory systems, DRADIS and other EM based sensors, coming up with less return of the resident EM frequecies of the local sun than it got from _Thunderchild_.

Its curiosity sparked, Heavy Raider 162 directed three of its cameras towards the unknown heat source, one of each optical band.

Zooming closer and closer towards the anomaly, it stopped as it was able to see the silhouette of the source.

Heavy Raider 162 calculated a high possibility of the unknown contact being an unknown ship. Its very unimaginative and neutral mind was able to make out the engine and reactor compartments of the unknown vessel was well as advanced heatsinks of Colonial design.

But while it was able to see it as a heat source, UV and visual data was scare. There was only a strange weaver surrounding the heat source on both visual and UV frequencies and the analytic mind of Heavy Raider 162 noted a pattern in the weaver after a while of observing the heat source.

Normally Heavy Raider 162 would have notified its Masters by now, but it followed its impulse of satisfying its curiosity on its own.

Slowly it began to try and compute the pattern used to generate the weaver that disrupted its visual and UV perception of the new contact, only absentmindedly noting that _Thunderchild_ was launching its Vipers and Canis.

It needed several minutes until was was close to break the unknown patter as it noted that four new, smaller heat sources broke away from the first.

There was the same weaver on its visible and UV sensors surrounding the new, smaller contacts as they moved away from the first massively larger heat source and moved into a formation.

Heavy Raider 162 now had five different source for the unknown pattern, enabling it to use minimal differences to break the patter faster.

Several more minutes passed and it was ready. Using the now broken pattern, it was able to filter out the weaver surrounding the single large and four smaller heat sources.

The smaller heatsources were rapidly identified as Viper MK VI with a few modifications, while the larger warship that had carried them needed some more time to properly identify it. Going through its warbook the warship was identified as Canophus class frigate.

A sense of satisfaction went through the consciousness of Heavy Raider 162 as it activated its Hyperlight com, an advanced technology derivate from the Colonial Hyperlight Drive.

Thylium was burned inside the small chamber of the Hyperlight com, a device the size of a pocketwatch and miniscule wormholes opened up inside. Miniature high frequency wireless transmitters activated and send a compressed data package towards its Masters.

Than it waited and continued to watch _Thunderchild_ and the unknown Canophus.

--

Simon sighed as he looked at the display that showed the new data package coming from one of the sole Command Raider of the whole operation, Heavy Raider 162.

"I was right," Doral noted and gave Cavil a superior grin." This is the whole idea behind having Command Raiders."

Cavil glared at the other Cylon.

Simon eyes the two other Cylons, chosing not to say anything for now. The one, three and six model lines had been against the whole idea of the Command Raiders, while the five, one and eight models had been for it. The four line had chosen to stay mostly neutral, but had voted for the Command Raiders.

Right now it seemed to be a good idea that they had. Without them, they would have been surprised by the unknown Canophus.

And exactly that was what made Simon uncomfortable as he saw the very large amount of various data Heavy Raider 162 had collected and send back to the mine.

Not only was the Canophus nearly fully stealthed, something that was already very hard to do to any smaller craft, like Vipers or Raiders, but also close to impossible to do to any capital ship. Even the Valkyrie class of Battlestars only had an increased stealth compared to other Battlestars, not a nearly complete stealth to DRADIS like this Canophus.

The apparent optical stealth was another thing that made Simon uncomfortable. Something like that was only possible with some sort of forcefield. Even the Cylons had only managed to generate forcefields in a laboratory environment. Those force fields had used very much energy and had been very unstable, collapsing in less than a second.

"So the blind chicken found one corn," Cavil threw at Doral." They are useless. We would have seen that frigate sooner or later anyway, without your 'Command Raider'."

Simon eyed the data again, shaking his head. According to what he was seeing on the display, he very much doubted that they would have seen it before it would have been too late. Probably only when it had been right over the mine and dropped its stealth to bombard the hell out of them.

"We should get the Basestars," Simon said.

Doral and Cavil stopped glaring at each other, glancing over towards Simon.

"It's to early," Cavil grumbled at him." They are still outside of the asteroid field.

Cavils response only made Doral grin.

"What?" he asked and looked at Cavil." Chicken?"

Simon groaned. This particular pair of One and Three, really didn't like each other. For a moment he wished that he had to deal with a Three and a Six.

"We have four Basestars," Doral continued." We have their positions. We can blow them out of space."

Normally Simon would have thought the same, but at the moment he was more for siding with Cavil. If that Canophus was able to hide from nearly all optical cameras with force fields and had better stealth than a Valkyrie class Battlestar, only God knew what it had to dish out otherwise.

For a moment the thought of energy weapons and force shields crossed his mind and he swallowed.

"We should wait," he said." We follow the plan."

--

Aleksandr looked out from the top of the growing structure that was in the center of the trainings camp he and his squad had founded. Looking down from the frontal wall of the cathedral, he looked at several of the Blood Claws paying in front of a statue of the Emperor.

He breathed in deep and frowned slightly, his glance moving towards the area where his Marines were training the next batch of Recruits. More and more of these Recruits were coming towards them and this third group numbered as much as a hundred.

By now the number of Recruits was evenly spread out over the four different people he had to deal with. Twenty Shin'bi, twenty one Ferrons, twenty five Colonials and twenty nine Dilgar. He wondered hoy many of them would make it through the training.

In the first two groups he had lost six recruits of about one hundred. Another twenty had not been fit to become Space Marines, but had become Bonded Brothers instead. They now maintained the trainings ground, structures and material, build the cathedral and would be serving as support troops of this Space Marine Chapter.

Again he looked down towards the Blood Claws praying to the Emperor.

He and his squad had been thrown deep into the past, when the Emperor was still young. He and his Brothers were the first of the Space Marines here. For a moment he wondered if they were changing the history of the Imperium, of the galaxy.

He shook his head clear. No, he such thoughts were heretic. Doubt lead to Chaos.

But the fact remained. They were alone here. Only a few old Space Wolves, with less than a hundred new Blood Claws that had yet to see real combat.

As he looked at the Blood Claws he noted that he could as well split them up, creating three different Chapters of Space Marines. It was too obvious that, while they were Space Marines, neither the Shin'bi nor the Dilgar were Space Wolves. And even the Ferrons were slightly different to the Colonial Space Wolves.

He nodded to himself after a while.

It would be for the best. Each of the four people they were recruiting from where different in their abilities.

The Shin'bi were best suited for stealth, the Ferrons for siege and urban warfare and the Dilgar for plain survival under the most extreme of environments, more so than even his Space Wolves.

He looked over them again and smiled as he thought of possible names for these Space Wolf brother chapters.

Star Dragons

Imperial Fists

Lion Warriors

He was sure that each of the new chapters would make their originators proud.


	33. Chapter 33

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 32

--

It was nearly silent. Only the gentle rumble of the engines, the faint noise of the life support systems and his own breath could be heard as he stared out into the darkness of space.

He looked to the side and only his trained eye was able to make out the faint blue glow of four engines several hundred meters away from him. Only with some fantasy he could imagine the shape of the other Lockheed A-91 Aurora as they moved towards orbit.

Captain Frank 'Miller' Schmidt, US Air Force, was an old hand when it came to the Aurora. The SR-91 Aurora had been a mostly black project, but with World War III starting with the Invasion of Germany and the follow up Invasion of Washington, the former CIA project had been catapulted into the public eye back in 1991. An Aurora had a found nuclear missiles on Cuba of all things, followed by a preemptive strike with Cruise Missiles and the Invasion of Cuba.

Schmidt breathed in deep and turned his head back towards their target.

"ETA, five minutes," he heard his Weapon System Officer say and nodded.

"Understood."

Normally they would say more, but this operation was important. Maybe too important.

What had even gotten him here?

The Doranian Invasion of Earth.

It was crazy, four years ago, he would have looked strangely at everyone who mentioned alien invasions. That was something for the movies. The Ivan had been more of a problem. Even with the War over, everyone was still concerned about the Soviets, as everyone had seen how they somehow managed to get themselves back to their feet in the aftermath of the War. It had something of a bear retreating to lick its wounds, only to attack again another time.

There had been tries to talk to the Doranians before the Invasion, as hundreds of ships had moved into orbit, only to begin bombarding major population centers and the larger military installation close to the cities. Out of the way bases, like the Nevada Test and Training Range, Fort Teller or Edwards.

Schmidt himself had been on a recon mission over Kamchatka, something about an experimental high energy weapon system the Soviets were said to develop there. It turned out that they had developed something along that line. Schmidt himself had seen a large laser beam strike up. It had later turned out to be a chemical laser that had been powerful enough to damage a Doranian Landing Ship on the final approach towards Tokyo.

Not much of a surprise that the Doranians nuked the site from orbit.

Groom Lake AFB however had survived and with it, the Aurora program and a good number of other programs.

He breathed in deep again and glanced at his instruments. This was the first time someone had taken the Aurora up into space. Technically the Waverider design of the Aurora allowed speeds up to Mach 20 and beyond inside the atmosphere, but the engines had been air breathing. And the airflow into the intakes had limited the actual maximum speed to Mach 8.

Only two factors allowed the A-91, to get into space. One thing was reverse engineering. With the sudden knowledge of aliens and a number of hastily drawn up plans to evacuate the best engineers and scientist, and their families, to somewhere safe, Groom Lake AFB had gotten a large influx of capable people to take a look at the Vree shuttle had had crashed in Roswell.

Of course some of the conspiracy nits had gotten wind of it later...

The other was the best kept secret after Area 51, the Vree shuttle, how much gold really was at Fort Knox and who had really killed JFK.

Department 312 of the Department of Defense. Having been founded back in 1910 as subdivision of the Department of War by Teddy Roosevelt himself, Department 312 hadn't officially existed, even through a good amount of money had flowed into it.

Department 312 had been unknown because it dealt with the Magical World, and those Mages who wanted to defend their country. Only few had actually know that it had existed. And after the death of JFK, by the hand of an insane Mage, from the Grassy Knoll, Department 312 and the Magical World had been kept secret from every president.

Only those at Groom Lake, and a few high Generals at the Pentagon had known about Department 312.

After the Invasion and the Magical World on the USA reduced with the Impacts in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago, everyone on the American Resitance knew of them. And Department 312 now worked very closely with the others at Groom Lake.

And with some help from the Resistance in Great Britain, Doctor Kevyn Andreyasn and his assistants Fred and George Weasley, they had been able to combine technology and magic on a more sophisticated level than a steam engine or a simple jeep.

The teams had taken two of the six SR-91 and converted them to the A-91. A multi mode engine had been rapidly designed, four being installed into the A-91. The engines were feed with raw plasma by a compact fusion reactor only made possible with the application of a magical containment field. It was able to work at every air speed and when there wasn't enough air, there was a large 'sub-space pocket' storing insane amounts of liquid air, feeding the engines with reaction mass if needed. Like out here in space.

Another team had build something resembling a cloaking device straight out of Star Trek, only with magic. Using the same magic that was used on Invisibility Cloaks, they had build a cloaking generator that could be switched on and off. A special coating of the cockpit windows allowed a pilot to see the other cloaked plane.

"ETA, one minute."

The Doranians wouldn't know what hit them. They had destroyed most missile bases on Earth after they had launched nuclear missiles at them, allowing them to hit at that, without effect. But as far as everyone knew now they had their shields offline.

And the new A-91 was the perfect way to exploit that.

"We're on course," he said and his eyes narrowed as he glared at one of the massive Doranian battleships that hovered above Earth.

The sucker they had chosen was easily the most massive ship above Earth, a disk of more than two kilometers diameter. It had to be the flagship of the whole occupation fleet.

Again he breathed in deep.

"Fortress, this is Eagle One," he said onto his microphone," we are on our final approach. Requesting permission to engage the target."

This voice was digitalized, scrambled and send down towards a satellite using a tight band radio connection. The satellite was one of several cloaked satellites that had been moved into space in the earlier month, using the A-91 as flight trials.

"Roger that, Eagle One," was the response coming from Groom Lake." Status of Eagle Two?"

"Eagle Two ready," came the voice of Schmidt's wingman.

There was a short silence.

"Eagle Flight, you are GO to commerce the Primary Ignition Sequence."

Normally Schmidt would have not been able to suppress a snicker about the order, but this was different.

"Roger, Fortress," Schmidt's Weapon System Officer said." Commercing Primary Ignition Sequence."

Schmidt swallowed as a new sound could be heard as the payload bay of the Autora opened. In it was the maybe most powerful weapon known to man, at the moment.

"Acquiring target."

Schmidt's eyes locked with the massive battleship in front of him and he pulled the Aurora slightly to the side, ready to pull her around and get the hell away from it.

"I got tone."

Schmidt breathed in deep. He heard the servos pushing the weapon out of the payload bay.

"Firing."

There was a very short bang as the weapon separated from its carrier. It was eerily silent as he watched how a light shot out from above them and towards the Doranian battleship. He saw a second light separating from his wingman and pulled the Aurora around, into a ninety degree ankle and gave full power on the four engines.

"Fortress, this is Eagle One. Primary Ignition Sequence commerced."

"Affirmative, Eagle One. Waiting for impact."

He knew physics well enough to know that maneuvering in free fall was different from moving inside the atmosphere. Here he had to thing differently.

Behind the Aurora a pair of heavily modified Agena D shot out towards the Doranian battleship, hidden by a cloaking field.

"Impact in thirty seconds."

Schmidt's breath became faster. It had been impossible to test the weapon before the first use and it was impossible to say how powerful it would be.

Two supercharged Agena D upper stages made their way towards the massive Doranian battleship, their optical targeting systems keeping it in sight, while a laser ranger notified the little computer about the distance. The chemical engines pushed them forward with several times their normal thrust, the speed by now exceeding the speed needed to get out of the gravitational field of the sun.

As they were about five hundred meters away from the hull of the battleship, they switched off their cloaks, instead routing the magical energy into several magical fields that would act as self amplifying containment field.

As the distance dropped below two hundred meters, they ignited the warhead. On each Agena a pair of W87 nuclear warheads detonated, their detonation funneled by magical fields onto a single target, five metric tons of magically compressed and liquefied hydrogen. The magical field compressing it failed, setting the hydrogen free. The nuclear power of the to W87 warheads heated and compressed the hydrogen, forcing it to fusion.

The resulting thermonuclear detonation was once again funneled by a higher power magical field that lived just long enough to force the majority of the blasts energy towards the intended target.

That made the already most powerful nuclear weapon even more dangerous. The explosion power of more than nine hundred megatons of conventional TNT was focussed on an area of the target not even fifty meters in diameter with less than five percent leakage.

Two of these warheads had detonated not even a hundred meter away from the hull of the Doranian battleship. The energy of each detonation, hard radiation of any kind, didn't even take the time to liquefy the hull armor of the ship, instead outright vaporizing it and forcing some of the now gaseous hull to fusion.

Punching through the hull the nuclear fire raced through half of the vessel at the same time it punched out through the other side of the hull.

From Earth the detonations were visible as two pinprick sources of intense light, ten times brighter than the sun. The resulting detonation of the Doranian ship was like a weak flashlight against the twin shortlived suns of the nuclear detonation.

"Eagle Flight, this is Fortress. Primary Ignition Sequence successful, Alderan was destroyed. Return to base."

"Roger that, Fortress. Eagle Flight out."

Schmidt had been surprised. He had thought that the detonation of the twin warheads would have been felt by him, at least shaking his Aurora, but nothing had happened. Except for the sudden intense light that had highlighted the surrounding Doranian warships.

But nonetheless, he breathed out and smiled lightly. They had done it...

--

Kevyn Andreyasn couldn't help but smirk a little as he looked down at the massive tank that was standing in one of the larger dungeons of Hogwarts. He had never thought that they would really manage to do it, but they had.

Next to him the Weasley Twins grinned.

"I can't wait...," George began.

"... to try it out," Fred finished.

Kevyn eyed them for a moment and the half transparent figure standing behind them. He couldn't help but snort.

Who would have thought that the Dessert Fox himself had been magically enough to leave a ghost behind, who than had been at the right place at the right time, to possess the largest tank ever build by humans?

"Is everything going normal, Feldmarschall?" he wondered and looked at the ghost.

Rommel smirked a little and straightened his uniform, but Kevyn noted that it didn't help any. The uniform remained just as wrinkly and blood stained as he had gotten it to know, the three holes in the ghosts chest very visible.

"Everything looks okay," the heavily German accented voice of the ghost said." The Teraport device seems to be okay. It could need some more of that CV Embinium potion."

Kevyn winced slightly.

"We can only have so much of it," he said." We are lacking the CV Embinium needed for it. And Snape isn't really fast with brewing that potion..."

Rommel's eye brow raised.

"Snape?" he wondered." You know as well as I do that he is working for Mr. Riddle."

The Twins winced slightly at the birthname of 'That Bloody Traitor'.

"I doubt that he want to brew much of it."

Kevyn sighed.

"But at the moment its the only way. We are weeks away from being able to create the potion in a more conventional chemical way. We need to add more magical parts to the distillation process. The potion without magical help is extremely explosive. Snapes isn't."

Rommel nodded.

"Very well. It should be enough for three or for jumps with the Teraport device. Enough to wreck some havok among the Doranians."

The Twins smirked and Kevyn knew that they were more than ready. He was just glad that Rommel had managed to reign them in a little when it came to using the tank.

"I heard that Edinburgh is nice for some Cat hunting these days," Fred noted.

"Not to mention a large CV Embinium depot," George continued.

Kevyn eyed the massive tank for a moment at more importantly the rear door. Behind it was enough space for a few dozen soldiers.

"I think I'll talk to his Majesty," he noted." Maybe you can get to test drive your new toy."

"I am not a toy..." Rommel noted and crossed his arms.

Kevyn smirked at Rommel.

"Maybe..."

With that Kevyn left the large dungeon, but not without taking a look at the other massive tank skeleton taking shape behind the first tank.

He should have never gotten them to plans for the P.1500 'Monster'...


	34. Chapter 34

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 33

--

_Masamune_ hovered just above the ecliptic of the star known to its crew as Sol. The powerful sensors of the Shin'bi Hikaru Tenno class vessel listened into the inner system of the star, its sensors mostly pointed towards Sol's third planet, Earth.

Commander Motoko glanced at the central plot of the _Masamune_.

The Command Center was larger than that of the Silent Blade class vessels, but shared the same layout. About fifteen consoles with acceleration seats placed around the large central view screen and above the central plot. One of the positive things about micro gravity.

Motoko frowned slightly as she glanced at the plot and the tactical data displayed on it.

For the last few weeks Masamune hovered above the ecliptic of Sol, all sensors pointed towards Earth, the homeworld of the Shogun.

She wasn't really sure if Harry Potter was the Shogun, much like about half of the population of Zaitaku. But on the other hand he had been confirmed by just about every oracle he had visited during the time had toured Zaitaku.

It was interesting to see educated Shin'bi becoming zealots after Potter had been presented as the Shogun, while others had denounced him.

She shook her head and concentrated on the display.

It was time for the weekly Doranian supply mission that came to Earth. According to intercepted slipstream and radio messages the humans on Earth was giving the Invaders a good headache with their resistance.

So the Doranians regularly needed new troops to try and suppress any resistance. Not that it really worked. Equally regularly were the requests of the Occupation Forces commander back to the Doranian homeworld to root out the resistance with orbital strikes, only to have those requests denied.

As far as her own psychologists were able to tell, any orbital strike would be seen as weakness by other nations. It would show that the Doranians weren't able to keep primitives under control.

But being able to take a long and good look at Doranian codes and military communication was only one of the good things about this post.

The other was that her analysts were able to get very good detail scans of Doranian vessels. By now they had made out six different classes of military vessels with about twenty sub-classes. Some of those sub-classes were Quantum One level, while others were Quantum Two level.

"Huh," one of her tactical officers suddenly noted." That is funny."

Motoko looked up. She pushed herself away from the plot table and towards the tactical console in question.

"What is it, Kei?" she wondered.

The other Shin'bi looked at her for a moment as his fingers raced over his keyboard or played with the trackball placed next to the keyboard.

"I can't say," he noted and frowned." There is some sort of Quantum interference. Looks like its mahou in nature."

Motoko blinked.

Mahou, or magic as it was called by the Shogun, had been known to the Shin'bi for centuries and when they had crossed the Quantum technology border and developed the needed Quantum sensors, they had found that mahou created specific quantum interferences, yet it was impossible to explain what made mahou work. It simply worked.

"Where?" Motoko asked.

The display of Kei zoomed in until it showed a part of the orbit above Earth. There was a large battleship of the Doranians, Protectors Claw class, in the center of the display, while a pair of fuzzy orange contacts swiftly moved towards the ship.

"Here," Kai noted and pointed at the display." The contacts a weak. I doubt that the Doranians can pick it up, even if they are closer to them."

Motoko shook her head. It always surprised her how simple the sensors that were used outside in the galaxy were. Instead of using every sensor available, most races seemed to switch to any new sensor as soon as it was possible, forgetting older sensors as primitive. Not that it was generally a problem...

The Doranians were no exception.

"Any idea what it could be?"

Kei frowned.

"Not really," he noted." The contacts are nearly identical and their size is consistent with fighters of some kind. Maybe they are under some sort of magical stealth."

He narrowed his eyes and his fingers flew over the keyboard again. A moment later the graphic of a spectral analysis appeared in the display and a green line sprung up, coming from the fuzzy contacts and disappearing out of the display.

"Hello..." he said and pointed at the display." Looks like we have an engine trail. It's..."

He blinked and his head moved closer to the display.

"... a mix of heated atmospheric gases?"

Motoko raised an eyebrow.

"Those fighters somehow use atmospheric engines..." he said after a while.

"Okay..." Motoko made and glanced at the display, only to see how another pair of even smaller fuzzy contacts broke away from the first pair.

The apparent magically stealthed fighters broke away from their course and appeared to increase thrust to try and get away from the smaller contacts and the battleship as fast as possible.

"Any idea?" Motoko wondered.

"Some sort of torpedo perhaps," Kei noted." Also magically stealthed."

Another spectral analysis popped up.

"Chemical engine using hydrazine and nitric acid. Rather simple drive, but a high throughput."

A moment later the display disappeared in a burst of static.

"Wha..."

"Detonation of ultra high yield nuclear devices detected," came from the neighboring tactical console.

Motoko's head turned towards the other console.

"Yield?"

Kei looked over his his colleague, who heaved dryly for a moment and than swallowed.

"Apparently two nine hundred megaton devices," she said and than breathed in deep." With shaped charge explosion characteristic."

Motoko swallowed. It this wasn't stirring up a nest of insects, she didn't know. Even them most powerful Shin'bi device had been only half the yield of these two devices. Not to mention that it had been considered impossible to shape the nuclear blast.

"Shogun protect us..." she heard someone say.

--

Grant frowned. Something was not quite right. _Thunderchild_ had just entered the Asteroid belt.

Normally there should be at least one Cylon patrol moving through belt to defend the refinery station. But there weren't any.

He glanced up and at Pierce.

"It's too silent," he said.

Pierce nodded.

"Ambush," Pierce said and frowned." Possible that they already know that we are here..."

Grant looked back up at the DRADIS display. Besides the contacts that were their Vipers and Canis', there were only the small contacts of asteroids hanging nearby in space.

"Possibly," he noted and grit his teeth.

Was it possible that the Cylons knew about the plans to attack the refinery? Had they seen the Raptor that had found it?

Maybe...

He looked at this tactical officer.

"Get me a scan of a nearby asteroid."

The woman in question blinked.

"Sir?"

"Do it," Pierce said and eyes Grant." What are we looking for?"

"Cylon Raiders," Grant said." Remember the Battle of Karabak in the First War. The Cylons had deactivated most systems and hid their Raiders on top of the Asteroids. We lost _Agrippa_ there."

"Scan complete," the tactical officer noted at that moment.

"Any artificial compounds?" Grant asked." Anything that could be Cylon."

"N..." the tactical officer was about to say." Yes... About ten metric tons worth of a high strength alloy, carbon compounds... The right mass for a Raider..."

"Frack..."

Grant reached for the phone of the 1MC, pressing the alarm button and causing an alarm to go through the ship and out towards the fighter screen. Of course he knew that his crew was already on battle stations, so he expected all stations to report battle ready as soon as he called for full battle status.

"This is Commander Grant," he said." We are going to full battle status. EmCon is canceled. We're now expecting a Cylon ambush."

He lowered the phone and looked up.

"Drop EmCon," he ordered." I want a full active DRADIS scan."

"They have to hide a Basestar somewhere," Pierce noted.

"Or not. They could jump out a Raider to get a Basestar to jump in..."

The two men looked at each other for a moment.

"Frack."

--

"_Thunderchild_ just broke EmCon."

Helo frowned as he looked up and at Kijoshi.

"They are not even close to engagement range to the asteroid."

"Maybe they smelled the trap?"

"Astral? Can you get me the main scan directions of _Thunderchild_?"

Astral looked at him for a moment before nodding. He fingers flew over the keyboard of her station as she called up the data feed she received from the drone that had clamped down on the massive hull of _Thunderchild_.

"They seem to be scanning the asteroid field. Especially the asteroids themselves."

Kijoshi smirked at Helo.

"They have smelled the trap."

Helo nodded and eyed the tactical display in front of him.

"And the Cylons have noticed it as well."

A larger number of Cylon Raiders had activated and now moved away from their hiding spots. Another large number of Raiders had lifted off from the refinery.

"That are more Raiders than _Galactica_ encountered," Kijoshi noted and Helo nodded.

"Okay," he said and straightened up." Helm, get us closer to _Thunderchild_. Flight, your Vipers scout out ahead and assist _Thunderchild_'s Vipers when needed. I want to keep full EmCon as long as possible."

--

Simon frowned as he glanced at the display. Next to him Cavil and Doral did the same.

"Looks like our trap is busted," Cavil noted.

Doral nodded.

"We should send the messenger to get the Basestars."

Simon sighed.

It looked like the plan needed to be changed slightly. Normally it would have called for the Colonial to be surprised by the Battlestars jumping in very close to them before they broke EmCon.

Simon didn't like to admit it, but the Colonials were right in a few things. That no plan survived initial contact with the enemy was one of those.

"We should get one of the Basestars to concentrate on the frigate," Simon noted." And take care of it before it can become a problem."

"A problem?" Cavil asked and narrowed his eyes as he looked at Simon." It's a simple frigate. Raider should be enough to take care of it, not a whole Basestar."

Simon shook his head.

"I think that the frigate might be a bigger problem that you anticipate. It got a very advanced stealth system. God only knows what else it could have."

Cavil snorted.

"And next you try to tell me that that ship has force shields or something like that."

Simon shook his head.

"You know as well as I do that those are close to impossible to generate force shields outside the lab," Doral noted dryly." But I have to support the motion. That ship might hold a few unpleasant surprises..."

Cavil frowned.

"Good, have your will..."

A minute later a Cylon Raider jumped away.


	35. Chapter 35

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 34

--

"Hyperlight events!"

The voice of Astral echoed through the Command Center of _Leonidas_. For such a rather small woman, she had a surprisingly strong and more importantly loud voice.

"Multiple new contacts at ventral port. Distance one hundred."

Helo's head flew around to look at the central plot. Kijoshi was doing just the same, unwillingly knocking away the feet of a crewman, who had just entered the Command Center, with the movement of his tail.

"Identification!" Helo called out, glaring down at the plot.

The systems of _Leonidas_ had already pulled together a first count of the contacts and a glance at the numbers made him swallow.

"Cylons..." he muttered.

"One Cylon Basestar, designated Sigma One," Astral confirmed him." One hundred Cylon Raiders."

"Shields," Kijoshi ordered before Helo could do it." Activate Point Defense. Move to full alert!"

Helo stared at the plot. Somehow the Cylons had found them. But how? He breathed in deep. A moment later he could hear the staccato like sounds from the active point defense as they began to fire at the Raiders and the light whirs of the motors that turned the point defense turrets.

"Deactivate stealth," he ordered after a moment." The Cylons know that we are here. No sense in wasting energy for stealth when they can see us."

Kijoshi glanced over to him. But before he could say anything, Astral's voice echoed through the room again.

"Multiple Hyperlight events! Located close to _Thunderchild_! Three Basestars, Designated Sigma Two through Four, multiple hundred Raiders."

"Frack."

The activity in Command began to pick up.

"Helm, bring us about for Sigma One and prepare a short range Hyperlight jump to Thunderbird. Tactic, get me a firing solution for Turrets One through Four on Sigma One."

Right now, Helo wasn't willing to use the main gun. Bad enough that the heavy gravitic cannon drained much energy, the fact that firing it destabilized the shield was worse.

"Launch detected! Sigma One launched four nuclear tipped missiles!"

Helo's eyes narrowed. On the display the Raiders had closed in on them and were now firing, while the point defense took care of them. He had to say that is was very different to the 'Wall of Steel' style flak that used to be fired by Battlestars. Here, each point defense turret had in independent targeting system and communicated with the others to pick out one target and than destroy it. It was much more effective than the 'Wall of Steel'.

"Mark the missiles as priority targets for the point defense."

"Missiles marked. Ready to fire Turrets One through Four."

Several of the Raiders suddenly disappeared from the display and Helo could imagine why. They had simply flown right into the shield. He eyes the digital indicator for the shield strength. It was hovering at much less than one percent. One should have thought that the impact of the raiders would get a reaction.

"Set the guns to rapid fire and open fire."

The display changed and a red line appeared between _Leonidas_ and the Basestar, while the four turrets in the status hologram of _Leonidas_ flashed up every time they fired.

"Get me an optical of the Basestar," Kijoshi ordered.

A moment later a small window popped up on the plot, that showed the Basestar in its center. The chrome glistening hull was intimidating at the first glance, but than the first few balls of plasma impacted into it. The powerful plasma pulses burned through the rather thin hull armor.

Had the turrets not been in rapid fire mode, each bolt of plasma would have been more powerful, but now the turrets walked their shots over the thinly armored hull of the Cylon Basestar, burning away armor and exposing the interior of the massive ship to open space.

Helo grinned as he watched that the Basestar began to burn at places were atmosphere leaked out of the vessels hull.

Another moment later and the point defense turrets had acquired the nuclear missiles as targets and placed their fire with deadly precision, disabling the dangerous projectiles before they could even get into spitting distance to the shield of _Leonidas_.

"Focus fire on the center of the Basestar."

By now the Basestar began to break away as more and more Raiders slammed into the shields, desperately trying to get towards the turrets to destroy them.

The plasma bolts walked across the hull of the Basestar towards the center of the large Cylon ship, tearing into the hull of the weak spot of the superstructure. The fire of four turrets slammed into the hull with the precision only a fire control computer could have, the hot plasma softening and weakening the structure.

The Cylons had developed a reactionless drive some time ago and now the setup of these engines was marking another problem. The reactionless drive had to be placed into the spines of the large warship and pulled the ship along with the massively build internal structure.

Right now the plasma had weakened the structure enough that the massive internal skeleton of the Basestar broke apart, the reactionless engines tearing the ship apart at the center with their finely tuned propulsion fields.

The reactors began to fail, Tylium spilling out of burst fuel lines and was set on fire by the Leonidas plasma bolts as they tore deeper into the structure. It only needed a few moments and the fuel tanks detonated, rupturing from internal pressure of the burning liquid.

Internal detonations began to rupture what was left of the massive ships hull, before it blew up in a massive fireball.

"Yes," Helo said with a smirk, but turned sober the moment later. "Status of _Thunderchild_?"

"_Thunderchild_ is under heavy Cylon attack," Astral said, her fingers working the keyboard in front of her." I'm detecting several nuclear tipped missiles moving towards her. And the point defense has too much work with the Raiders."

"Is there an area not covered by the point defense?" Kijoshi asked and glanced at Helo.

"Positive."

"Helm, jump us to that point."

Even while still under attack from Cylon Raiders, _Leonidas_ jumped a few moments later.

--

Simon stared at the tactical display in front of them.

"What in Gods name..." he heard Cavil say and than go silent.

It was strange to hear a member of of this generally atheistic models say something like that. Normally Simon would have shaken his head, but at a moment like this...

The Colonial frigate had proven to be more than it appeared to be. Data readings from several Raiders and the Basestar that had been tasked to destroy it, had shown many things that were out of the ordinary for a Colonial ship.

After it had dropped whatever stealth it used closeup scan had reviled that it produced about four times the energy it should. Than the first Raiders were destroyed rapidly by point defense guns that were eerily accurate when targeting the Raiders. To make matters worse, none of these point defense guns was firing at the same Raider.

The closest comparative system to the frigates point defense had been a system that had been under Colonial development, the AEGIS system. Theoretically the AEGIS would have been able to independently target and fire at threads moving closer to a given ship. But the AEGIS had been completely theoretically and the Admiralty of the Colonies had been wary against such a system.

Simon had the feeling that the AEGIS would have had the same performance as the point defense system of the frigate.

That was also the moment a strange translucent red bubble had appeared around the frigate and Raiders that flew against the bubble detonated very spectaculary.

Simon had felt a sense of dread. Just a few moment ago he had put force shields that covered full ships into the area of fantasy, but right there and than he saw that they were very possible.

That energy weapons besides clunky lasers the Colonials had experimented with existed was presented to them at the next moment, just moments after the Basestar had fired a spread of nuclear missiles.

Some sort of energy projectile, the readings noted that they were plasma balls that contained Thylium, impacted in the armor of the Basestar and shredded it.

Damage and other reports of the Basestars Hybrid flooded towards the Hybrid of the mining station, as the four energy weapons of the frigate raked across the hull of the Basestar and towards the center.

Meanwhile the nuclear weapons didn't even get as far as towards the frigates force shields, they were simply picked out by the ships powerful point defense systems.

"Destroy the Defender!" Doral ordered after a moment of shock and stared at the Hybrid." The other Basestars need top help against the frigate."

Simon swallowed. Somehow he knew that it was not going to help.

Only a moment later the plasma weapons had walked their fire across the hull of the Basestar and began to hit the center with the same precision the point defense systems were hitting Raiders.

The Basestar tried to move away from the frigate, but as it moved, it began to break apart and the reactors burst.

Simon closed his eyes for a moment as he felt the data burst of the Hybrid towards the Resurrection Hub.

"Attack the frigate!" Doral ordered his voice slowly becoming hysteric as he knelt down at the pool of the Hybrid, glaring at it.

On the display, the frigate jumped. Only to reappear not even fifty meters above the dorsal hull of the Defender. The red sphere blinked into existence again, only to be hit by ten nuclear missiles.

On another display the Defender and the jumped frigate were engulfed by the nuclear fireballs of ten thermonuclear warheads.

Simon heard Doral laugh out loud.

"Fools!" he said only to have the trumph turn into a choking sound as the fireballs dissipated and the red sphere was clearly visible again and beneath it both the Defender and the frigate.

--

He breathed in deep and calmly as he glanced down at the weapons spread out in front of him.

He closed his eyes for a moment before he reached out to pull the vest from among the weapons.

It surprised himself haw calm he was. Maybe it was the calmness of a man who know that he would die. One way or another.

He had just slipped into the vest and was ready to close it, he began to cough. They became stronger with each cough and he collapsed to his knees and wrapped his arms around his chest. Blood splattered out of his mouth and onto the flagstone of the floor, followed by what looked like they were small pieces of his lung.

He coughed for several minutes before slowly stopping. He remained kneeling on the floor for a few more minutes as the pressed his eyes shut from the immense pain in his chest. But it wasn't only his chest.He could feel that the wounds around his chest and back, where his skin had become black and peeled away a month ago cracked open.

He tried to breathe in deep again, but it only made the pain from his chest and back grow stronger and he threw up.

He heaved dryly for a few more moments after emptying his stomach in front of him before opening his eyes again. The floor swam in front of his eyes, before solidifying again as the smell of his own bile and blood came to his nose.

He stared at his own bile for a moment, noting that it was red from the blood of internal bleeding.

He swallowed, and tried to ignore the burning feeling his his throat.

Closing his eyes he prayed to Asclepius and Ares. While they were not the house gods of his family, they were responsible for being relatively fit, even as he slowly died of radiation poisoning.

Maybe it was the training of a Colonial Marine, maybe it was just plain luck, but during the last weeks since the holocaust, he had come to believe in the Gods more than ever before.

Slowly he rose again.

He reached out again, ignoring the mess on the floor in front of him as he plucked up the small dead men switch from the table and connected it to the small electronics of the vest. Now he just needed to pull a simple pin to activate the vest and the blocks of G4 sewn into it just beneath the Kevlar sheets and trauma plates of the vest.

Once they exploded the vest and the trauma plates would make good shrapnels.

Than he grabbed the bandoleer of grenades and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Again he closed his eyes for a moment before grabbing his helmet and putting it on, another wire connecting it to the ignition system of the vest to connect the G4 in it to the rest.

He stopped, breathing in deep again.

He stared at his hand for a moment. It was shaking, the tips of his fingers slowly turning black. He had lost his fingernails three weeks ago and the skin looked like it was made of thin paper. Small blots of black clotted blood were visible through it, showing him once gain what happened to the human body when it had radiation poisoning.

He doubted that his hands would look like this if he hadn't been allergic to the Anti-Radiation meds.

He sighed and reached for the gun. It was an old N-16 from the first Cylon War. It felt right to use a weapons that had already destroyed it fair share of toasters. The massive depleted uranium penetrators of the 12mm weapon had quite nicely punched straight trough the toasters and into another.

He slowly looked over the carefully cleaned weapon and checked it. The large drum magazine was pulled off for a moment, only to be slammed into it again.

He nodded to himself and turned around.

The door was right in front of him.

Most others wouldn't have moved an inch and thought everything through again, but he didn't. He reached out and pressed the door knob down, pulling the door open. Slowly he walked out of the room.

It was strange. He was less than two hundred meters away from the local headquarters of the Cylons and they hadn't taken notice of him. In fact he had walked towards the Cylon HQ before.

Now would be the last time.

Major Leon Maximilian would fight his last fight.

And at the end he would be reunited with his wife and his child...


	36. Chapter 36

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 35

--

_Leonidas_ shook as ten high yield nuclear warheads impacted in the frigates shields.

Helo's fingers gripped hard down into the handrail of the central plot. He stopped breathing for a moment and looked up as he heard a groaning resonate through his ships superstructure.

"Direct Hit!" Astral noted with a loud voice and Helo wondered how she could be that calm. "Shield stress up to ninty percent."

Helo cursed and glared at the shield indicator.

A loud snapping sound was heard and he saw the stress indicator jump up to one hundred twenty percent for a moment.

"Shield Circuit Breaker One has expired," came from engineering." Breaker Two is online."

Helo grit his teeth. It seemed that they had gotten into one of the particle eddies that were present in the entire sphere around Kobol and disrupted Quantum based technology. They could differ from one kilometer to the next and it was a problem in a combat situation like now. Especially if the strengthening Hyperlight Core didn't strengthen the shield.

Right now the shield was down to its original civilian strength.

"Can we use a torpedo?" Kijoshi asked, his voice loud enough to get over the still groaning hull.

"Negative," Astral answered." Shield strength would not be enough to survive a right now."

Helo breathed in deep and eyed the tactical plot again. Than he looked up.

"Get targeting data for the turrets and the main gun," he ordered. " We need to end this fast. And switch the torpedoes to short range combat."

"Yes, sir," came the answer.

As Astrals fingers flew over her console, Helo glared at the plot.

As far as Helo knew Ferron torpedoes were designed with three kinds of combat in mind. Short ranged low intensity combat in orbit, mid ranged combat up to a light second range and long range combat above one light second.

And with each range came its own warhead mode. On short range they acted as not much more than kinetic impactors and every bit of energy in the stores went into the drive to accelerate them with just slightly over five hundred times gravity.

Mid range had been used in the Battle of Zaitaku with devastating results. Long range was less devastating, but much more of a problem. It combined relativistic speed with the creation of a powerful gravity well and as far as Helo had heard that this mode could rip ships apart between two passing missiles, sorely because of the gravity wells.

Helo quickly calculated the power of the kinetic impactors in his head. He hadn't been very good in math at school, but flight school had gotten that out of him.

Each missile had around a hundred tons mass and at five hundred gravities they would make it up to about 20 kilometers per second before impacting.

He grinned a little. Each torpedo would have the same energy as a 4 kT nuke.

"Anything about _Thunderchild_?"

"Not yet, sir. They are still engaging the Cylons."

--

Grant closed his eyes, finger gripping around the handrail of the central plot.

"Impact in twenty seconds," he heard his tactical officer say.

It would not end well. Of the thirty nuclear tipped missiles, fifteen were still coming towards them and the point defense gunners were not reacting nearly as fast as they should. Not with several hundred Raiders out there as well.

There had been a brief contact just outside the DRADIS range, but he doubted that he was going to get any answers before the missiles had hit.

He send of a short prayer towards the gods as the tactical officer called out again.

"Unknown contact just jumped in. Distance one kilometer dorsal."

Grant opened his eyes and stared towards the tactical officer for a moment, his knuckles going white.

"What..." he brought out as his eyes fell on the timer for the impact.

One second.

Time suddenly seemed to crawl and his life flashed before his eyes. The microseconds seemed to crawl by as his eyes were locked with the timer.

Time seemed to stop all together as the timer hit zero and flashed a few times.

The Command Information Center of _Thunderchild_ was eerily silent. The ship didn't shake, there wasn't the groaning of the superstructure as the nukes hit. Only the noise of the normal operation of a war ship.

Time speed up again and Grant looked up and into the surprised face of Pierce. A small part of his mind noted that he probably had the same expression on his face.

"What in Hades..." he brought out.

"Unknown contact identified," the tactical officer called out." Colonial frigate, ninety percent match to Canophus class. Colonial IFF, identified as _Leonidas_, part of Battlestar Group 75."

Grant looked around to face the tactical officer.

"_Galactica_," he heard Pierce say," Bill Adama's boat."

"Friendly?" Grant asked as jumped over to the tactical console, looking over the shoulder of the tactical officer and at his display.

"Probably," was the answer." They appear to be firing at the Cylons. And the nukes..."

"And the nukes what?"

The tactical officer was silent as his finger danced over his keyboard.

"I don't know! The nukes seemed to slam into something and detonated."

Grant grit his teeth and moved to the side towards another console that was unused at the moment. He grit his teeth as he switched on one of the external cameras on the dorsal hull.

"What..."

Outside the hull of _Thunderchild_ was cast in a strange red light that came from a wavering red curtain of some sort. For a moment the camera caught how a Raider slammed into the curtain, detonating.

"Intensify fire on Delta-One," he heard Pierce call out behind him as he moved the camera upwards until it had caught _Leonidas_.

The frigate was very visible against the strange red curtain and Pierce noted that its hull seemed to be of a very dark red color, through a part of his mind noted that it might be painted black with the red glow illuminating the ship like that.

Just at that moment the frigate began to fire with its port batteries. Normally he would have awaited to see the bloom of the guns. Instead he saw what appeared to be blue bolts shot out from the frigates guns as it turned about to face the first Basestar. And it weren't just the large guns, but also the smaller point defense guns.

"What in Hades is going on?" he asked no one in particular.

--

The light of the distant star illuminated the massive gun metal gray hull of the massive vessel, the numerous scars of micrometeorites visible against the hull. Here and there light shone from the inside of the massive vessel, where the hangar decks were open to space.

Another, smaller, vessel was docked on the upper part of the massive vessel, its hull darker and carrying very visible weapons on hull mounted sponsoons. There were several large areas of the ships hull of the same gun metal gray color as the massive vessel where it had been patched up.

Unseen fingers of radiation fingered out from both vessels and towards the inner system.

Inside the massive vessel a human male in a blue uniform stood in front of a display and stared at it. His eyes closed for a moment and his hands moved through his graying hair. Than he turned around towards his companion.

"Are you sure that the transmission was on a Gold Channel?"

His companion looked at him, the single red eye sensor stopping for a moment, before moving from left to right again.

"I am sure," the metallic sounding, but clearly human voice said." The Tachyon scatter was a little lower compared to the Tachyon transmitters of the Sabre, but it was clearly a Gold Channel encryption."

The man turned around towards the display, looking into the faces of two humans talking to each other over the Gold Channel.

As the display died in static, he turned around again and sighed.

"They are Colonial," he noted," And about to attack your brothers."

The red eyes stopped again, hovering over the man for a few more moments.

"I thought that you would understand us better by now, Daniel," was the answer." We do not want to be compared to these Heretics."

"Sorry, Spectre," Commander Daniel Garret of the EAS Sabre said." It's just..."

"I can understand that," Spectre said." You are human. As are the Colonials. We are Cylons, just as the Heretics are."

Daniel nodded.

"Old habits die hard..."

Spectre made a noise that sounded like a laugh.

"That is true," he said." A good number of us was ready to blast you out of space before maybe talking to what remained."

"Still glad you didn't," Daniel noted." That spidy shipy thing really did a number on us."

"As are we. Working with you has been a better decision. And you have been a good example for us for humans that are not going to enslave us."

Daniel chuckled a little embarrassed.

"I guess working with aliens does that to you..."

"Indeed."

There was a beeping noise that went trough the very sparsely furnished Combat Information Center of the old Hades Class Basestar. There were a few consoles, with Cylons sitting behind them, as well as the odd human from the Sabre. The center of the Command Information Center was occupied by something that looked like a bath tub, filled with a milky white liquid.

"Raider Seven Five has just ended its jump in system," the occupant of the bath tub said and opened his eyes." They are now transmitting their TADAR data."

"Thank you, Merlin," Spectre said and nodded towards the man in the tub.

"Thats my job," he noted." Doesn't look very nice, through."

The display lit up again, showing a DRADIS like display. For a brief moment it showed static before clearing again.

"The Heretic Stars just detonated ten nuclear warheads against the Cruiser," Merlin noted dryly." I don't think..."

He stopped.

"Frack... The ship somehow survived..."

Daniel blinked a few moments and looked at the Hades' hybrid.

"What? Not even a Minbari ship can survive that kind of punishment..."

Spectre followed Daniel's glance over towards Merlin.

"There is one possibility," he noted." Force Shields. The V'Ampier database we recovered in the Delta Phi system talked about force shields being in use by most races outside the Kobol Fortress Zone."

"True," Merlin noted." A pity that ninety percent of the data was hopelessly corrupted."

He than raised an eyebrow and a hand rose from the milky white and slimy liquid inside the tub, pointing at the display.

"Take a look at that," he said." Looks like there is a frigate side ship above the Cruiser. It seems to be projecting the Force Shield."

The display had changed to show a very grainy image. It showed a smaller ship above the larger Cruiser and a red bubble surrounding both ships.

"Looks like the smaller ship is the _Leonidas_," he noted.

Daniel stared at the display for a few moment.

"I suddenly feel like I'm in Star Trek," he muttered." Shields and intelligent robots..."

"And as such a part of the _Galactica_'s fleet," Spectre noted." It seems like they have jumped beyond the border of the Zone."

Merlin breathed in deep and looked a little scared.

"No one in their right mind would do that..." he said.

"We wouldn't do that," Spectre pointed out." We know that the Great Enemies of the V'Ampier are still out there and that they have destroyed countless planets in their crusade against the V'Ampier. The Colonials did not."

"That was 25000 years ago," Daniel pointed out more or less absentmindedly, still looking at the screen." Many things can change in that time."

"True," Spectre said and the head of the advanced Centurion nodded." But who could have give this technology to the Cylons?"

"Earth..." Merlin noted after a few moments." It's outside of the Zone. Galactica could have found Earth..."

"I am a little skeptical about that," Spectre noted while Daniels head whipped around.

"We need to make contact with them," he said." I know we're not in our home universe. But Earth is our homeworld. We all want to go back home..."

Spectre looked at Merlin for a moment and the Hybrid looked back at him. Spectre was glad that the injection of V'Ampier DNA had made the Hybrid very stable and almost human like.

"I guess we could try..." Merlin said, his face showing concern, only to be replaced by surprise as he stared at the display.

Daniel blinked once before turning back to the display, while Spectre had needed less time to turn around to look at the screen.

On the display several very small contacts separated from Leonidas and speed towards the three Heretic Stars with a breathtaking acceleration.

"What the fuck..." Daniel managed to get out as the contacts impacted into the Heretic warships, resulting in the complete destruction of the first just after the impact.

"Kinetic Energy Weapons," Spectre noted." We should keep a good distance between _Seeker or Enlightenment_ and _Leonidas_."


	37. Chapter 37

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 36

------------------------------------------------------------------

Politics was murder.

Over the last few month since the Battle of Zaitaku, Harry Potter had found out that this was doubly true for Shin'bi politics. Or as Enesby had put it...

The only difference between the Shin'bi way of warfare and the Shin'bi way of politics was that politics involved more talk.

During the time he had toured Zaitaku he had survived no less than ten assassination attempts of those that didn't like to find out that the prophesied Shogun was taking away their power.

Not that Harry really wanted that power. He was more or less forced into it. On the other hand he now wielded nearly absolutist power over about half of Zaitaku. Even the rest of the planet was going to do what he said, even through they would want to talk him out of it.

It was a sore point for him. Especially since he feared that the power would corrupt him. Like it had done to Voldemort. Or Joseph Stalin. Or Adolf Hitler.

"With great power come great responsibility," Jack had said once, quoting some 'Uncle Ben'.

He preferred to have the people already in charge to continue doing their job. They knew what they were doing.

He eyed his recently acquired bodyguards. A pair of Shin'bi Space Marines, massive 'were-dragons', in equally massive powered armor coming straight from the industrial sector of Babylon 4, build by Jack and equipped with the latest technology from Babyon 4's databases, the Colonials, Shin'bi, Ferrons and Dilgar. They were at least twice the size of Harry and even more massive than Aleksandr.

Being Shin'bi, they recognized him as Shogun and their place of birth from one of the nations that had given Harry full power over their government.

Now being Space Marines they also recognized him as the Emperor. Of what, Harry still didn't know. To call them merely loyal would be a huge underestimation. Those two would be doing just about everything for him.

Which brought him back into the present.

"I don't know if that is a good idea, Admiral Adama," President Baltar noted, looking a little nervous and glancing over towards Enesby, Jack, GLaDOS and Artemis." Of course we have better technology now, but we got less than ten warships. Attacking the Cylons with those is not going to end well."

Harry eyed Baltar for a moment and than eyed Enesby, who grinned wide looking at Baltar.

"You have Allies, Mr. President," Enesby noted and his grin became wider." I am pretty sure that at least the Shin'bi are willing to send a few ships along."

Enesby winked at Harry for a moment, while Baltar began to sweat. By now Harry's feeling that Enesby had some very bad dirt on Baltar only reinforced itself.

"I wouldn't want to impose our problems on any of our allied," Baltar said.

"You would not impose yourself on us," Artemis noted." I have just gotten the results of a public poll from the Ferrons population. Ninety percent are willing to send a force help liberate the Twelve Colonies."

For a moment Harry noted the rather special way of the Ferrons doing things. All of them had a personal computer with them all the time and for Artemis it was easy to open a poll, send it to all those computers and get a result in less than two minutes.

"I am also willing to send a few ships," Hak'Ey, the leader of the Dilgar said and pulled up straight." We know how it is to lose the homeworld and everything one holds dear. We are willing to help, just as you were willing to help us settle down here at Liberty. Even if we can't return home, at least others should."

By now Baltar looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast moving train. It was a far cry from someone who was leading his people. Through from what Harry had heard in the press, the Quorum was doing much more to lead the Colonial remnants.

"What about the Shin'bi, Shogun Harry?" Enesby noted and flashed him one of his trademark grins.

Harry groaned at the title as he felt the two Shin'bi Space Marines stiffening up behind him.

Than he drew in a deep breath. His thought moved towards the Cylons for a moment.

They had been created as cheap labor and warfare robots and slowly gained sentience. That they developed enough free will to fight for their freedom wasn't really surprising to him. In a way it had been slavery and in the end the Cylons had gained their freedom.

But did that give them the right to try and commit genocide against their creators? No.

In a way Harry was reminded of what he knew about Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, and what he had read about him in a certain series of novels. A wizard born fro a wizard and a normal, grew up in a only slightly better than Harry himself, discovered that he was a wizard and as such better than a normal or anything below a 'pure-blood'.

The Cylons were doing the same. They thought they were better.

Harry breathed in deep. The Colonials were human and even if the colonies had been nuked, he knew that there were still survivors. Samuel Anders and a few others of his group were the proof.

Jack had once noted that there should be two to three billion survivors spread out over the colonies.

Three billion people in a situation that was maybe worse than what currently happened on Earth.

With the Shin'bi behind him Harry had the power to do something. To change something.

"The Shin'bi are going to commit a force," he said after a few more moments." And I'll be leading them from _Enterprise_."

He looked at Admiral Takano.

"How fast can we get a force ready?"

Takano looked a little surprised but recovered fast.

"Three hours."

Harry nodded and looked back at Baltar.

"We're all giving our support, Mr. President," he said before Enesby could say something.

Baltar swallowed and it was very clear that he was extremely uncomfortable at the moment.

"Good, good," he said weakly." In that case... Admiral..."

Adama answered before Baltar could say anything more.

"_Galactica_, _Defender_, _Alexander_ and _Iphicrates_ are ready to be deployed in two hours."

"Ahm... good. See to it than..."

Harry nodded to himself and Baltar made sure to get out fast. He had to ask Enesby what he had on Baltar that the man folded in just like that from just a glance...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Simon stared at the display, just like Cavil and Doral.

The frigate, and with it the Defender, had just survived the impact of ten nuclear warheads. The red sphere, now very obviously a force shield of some kind, had held against the destructive force of ten five megaton capital ship destroyers.

And both continued to fight back.

Simon had the bad feeling that the force shield would continue to hold, even if the Basestars threw more nukes at it.

The frigate began to turn about to face the Basestars, its weapons already firing again. The number of Raiders was seen on a small numeric display and the number was decreasing.

"Fire more missiles!" Doral ordered and glared towards the Hybrid.

Simon stared at him.

"They survived ten capital ship killers," he said, his voice carrying the shock he still felt." They may be able to survive more than ten."

Cavil on the other hand was strangely silent, staring at the display, while Doral stared at Simon.

"They won't," he said and grit his teeth, looking back at the Hybrid." Fire all nuclear missiles."

"We cannot win this," Simon said." Think you idiot. We have a frigate from an unknown Colonial group. If this frigate can survive ten capital ship killers, what do you think one of their battlestars can do?"

"If they have battlestars," Doral said and he nearly sounded as if he growled." If we destory that frigate..."

"They will come here with a larger force," Cavil said, his voice strangely calm." We..."

He was interrupted as the frigate fired what looked missiles at first. But they moved too fast. They needed just about five seconds to get from the frigate towards the Basestars, moving in a straight line directly towards the meeting point between the upper and lower pylons. Just as the first Basestar fired its remaining missiles, the first of the frigates missiles impacted into the first Cylon missile.

The resulting detonation had the force of a small nuclear warhead but only before the nuclear fuel was ignited by the detonation of kinetic energy. The resulting fireball bloomed in space, too close to the Basestar. The Basestars armor began to buckle under the strain of the detonation, heat and hard radiation killing the biological components just before the metal armor began to vaporize.

The fireball vanished only to leave several pylons behind, each slowly detonating from the inside as Thylium fuel lines burst and were ignited by the fires raging through them.

"Wha..."

The next Basestar fared a similar fate, only that the Colonial fast missile hit one of the Raiders close to the Basestar, the fireball of the detonation less powerful, but still enough to induce a lethal chain reaction that destroyed the Basestar.

Only one Basestar didn't share the fate of its brothers. Just as the fast missile impacted into its hull, it jumped away.

Again the three biological Cylons stared at the display.

This time it was Cavil who first came out of his stupor.

"We need to cut our losses," he said." We just lost three Basestars. We cannot afford to loose more."

He turned towards the Hybrid.

"Recall all Raiders to the next base," he ordered and than turned back to his colleagues." And we will evacuate this mine. Than we will destroy this asteroid with the warheads already in place. They are here for the Thylium. They are not going to get it."

"He will come," the Hybrid noted, but was ignored by the three humanoid Cylons." Rerouting energy to grid three. The Omnissiah appears. End of Line."

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Looks like one of them became wiser than the others," Kijoshi noted slightly amused as he looked at the plot where one of the torpedoes had just crossed the space that used to be occupied by a Cylon Basestar.

Helo eyed him for a moment.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," he said and rolled his eyes.

Helo had to say that Kijoshi had been a good catch as XO. They were getting along nicely and shared the same kind of humor.

"And that leaves a few hundred Raiders," Kijoshi continued without missing a beat." I don't think you know how we can get them out of our space fast?"

Helo shook his head slightly and looked over towards Astral.

"Astral, switch turrets to point defense fire."

The Ferron woman nodded and her fingers flew over her keyboard like always.

"Sir, we got _Thunderchild_ on the phone," Communication noted.

"Fast aren't they?" Kijoshi wondered and caused Helo to shake his head again.

"We just saved their sorry asses, of course they are."

He paused for a moment and looked towards Communication.

"Put them through."

"_Leonidas_, this is _Thunderchild_," a voice called out over the speakers of the Command Information Center." Please respond."

"This is _Leonidas_, Captain Karl Agathon speaking," Helo answered out loud and fell back to old habits," We hear you five to five."

"This is Commander Franklin Grant," the voice said again." Thanks for the save, Captain."

Helo chuckled.

"Not a problem, Commander. We were in the area and thought that you could need a little help."

The line was silent for a few moments.

"Do you mind to tell us what the Hades just happened? Where did you get a fracking force shield and energy weapons?"

Helo looked at Kijoshi.

"Longer story, sir," Helo said." Lets just say that _Galactica_ managed to make a few new friends and leave the rest for later."

"I hope you got a very detailed answer for me, Captain."

"I guess parts of my crew will be explanation enough. Especially my XO. But I think you want to take a closer look at the Thylium Asteroid before we have a long explanation session."

Again the line was silent.

"You know of the asteroid?"

Helo chuckled a little, clearly audible over the line.

"_Galactica_ already mined about half of the Thylium on the way through..."


	38. Chapter 38

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 37

------------------------------------------------------------------

Helo glared down at the display of the plot.

A few moments after the last Cylon Basestar had jumped away, most Raiders had followed suit, jumping somewhere. A few had jumped towards the Thylium Asteroid, but most hadn't.

Right now there was a good amount of activity at the asteroid and Helo didn't like it. The whole situation was a trap. The Cylons had jumped at them, even somehow managing to get through the stealth system of Leonidas. And now they had pulled only a small number of forces back to the Asteroid.

He lay a finger down at the tactical display, drawing a circle around the asteroid. The advanced touch sensitive display of the plot recognized the gesture and the asteroid zoomed in until it filled the display of the plot.

"Astral," he called out and eyed the Ferron woman for a moment." Can you get me a full scan of the asteroid."

She looked back at him and mimicked Kijoshi's raised eyebrow.

"I can, sir," she noted." Should I get a drone to it?"

Helo shook his head.

"No. The drones may be stealthed, but the Cylons have somehow managed to breach our stealth. Just do a normal scan."

Astral nodded and Kijoshi eyed him.

"You got a gut feeling, eh?"

Helo nodded.

"Yeah. That depot of Thylium can supply a fleet like ours for several years. And right now the Cylons are only putting up a token resistance against us. It doesn't quite add up."

Kijoshi nodded as they both watched how the data from the scan was layered over the display in realtime.

"They might have increased the ground based defenses," Kijoshi noted.

"Or they have rigged the whole asteroid with nuclear warheads."

The Shin'bi looked at Helo and again raised an eyebrow, before nodding again.

"Sounds very much like something a Shin'bi would do," he noted with a chuckle." Detonate the warheads and you get an increased yield from the detonation, ripping the asteroid to shreds. And those shreds act like shrapnel against all objects surrounding the asteroid. Like spaceships."

"Not to mention reducing the rest of the Thylium to worthless material thanks to the nuclear radiation..."

Helo frowned as yet another layer was placed over the display and pressed a small icon in one corner of the plot. Immediately the two dimensional display of the asteroid seemed to raise from the plot until if floated above it, slowly rotating.

"Astral," Kijoshi said after a while." Can you get us a display of radiation gradients around th asteroid?"

Astral nodded the hologram changed, showing a flow of colors around the asteroid, raging from blue to red. Once again Helo was baffled about the effectivity of Galactic sensors. He had never thought that they would be able to scan for radiation moving into any other direction than theirs. But such was technology that was able to get around the Uncertainty Principle by doing two different scans for direction, followed by speed of particles using some sort of quantum interference with vacuum energy.

Thinking of something like that was giving him headaches...

"Red are the highest radiation areas?" he wondered.

"Yes, sir."

Helo nodded and eyed the hologram. There were several areas with heightened radiation, mostly orange in color. The only red area was the mine.

He poked a finger into the hologram before slightly crooking it and pulling out one of the orange dots, the plot sensing his motions. The area he pulled out, zoomed in, showing the area in a large resolution. But it wasn't large enough to actually see anything.

"Looks like we have found our nukes," he noted.

"Sir," suddenly came from Communication." Flash message from _Galactica_. We're ordered to stay put and wait for reinforcements. _Galactica_ and an allied fleet will jump in in approximately five hours."

Helo blinked and looked at Kijoshi.

"That was fast," he noted." I thought that they would bicker over it for at least a week."

Kijoshi snorted.

"Our politicians would have needed a month, with at least five assassinations..."

Helo edged away from Kijoshi.

"Remind me to never get involved in Shin'bi politics..."

"Noted," the dragonoid said with a grin." Also looks like we're able to tell Grant our story..."

------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander Franklin Grant eyed the airlock.

For now he wanted to know what the frack was going on. Captain Agathon had relayed a message from _Galactica_, who had to be several systems away, to stay put for the moment and await the arrival of her and a fleet of their allies.

Only that there hadn't been any Raptor jumping in, not any other fast courier or scout bearing the message.

It only added to the force shield and the energy weapons. Did they have some sort of FTL communication system?

Right now _Leonidas_ was docking with _Thunderchild_, using the starboard docking port. There were a number of Marines securing the air lock, ready to use anything should this be a very elaborate trap of the Cylons.

The red light above the airlock switched to green and the airlock slowly cycled open.

On the other side a wide eyed Colonial crewman stared into the numerous barrels of the Marines weapons and paled visibly.

"Commander Grant?" the crewman asked with a weak voice after swallowing, looking towards Grant.

"That would be me," Grant noted and frowned.

The crewman looked very young. He couldn't have been older than maybe seventeen, little more than a boy really.

"Captain Agathon waits for you in CIC, sir," the crewman said nervously." He's sorry that he can't come himself, but he is a little busy with the latest sensory data."

Grant raised an eyebrow.

"Well than Crewman," he said and looked at the crewman, looking at his name patch." Stanos, lead the way."

Next to Grant, Pierce nodded towards the Marines. The Master-at-Arms nodded in response.

"Hanson, Wilks, Carver, Parmer, you'll be securing the Commander," the Chief Petty Officer ordered and four Marines moved towards Grant as he walked towards the air lock.

Crewman Stanos swallowed again and walked back into Leonidas. Grant could see that the boy walked with stiff legs and shook his head as he followed him, in turn followed by the four Marines.

The first thing that shot through Grants head was that _Leonidas_ didn't have much space. The airlock ended up in a corridor that was narrow enough that only two people could walk through it next to each other. And even than most of the space was taken up by a number of crates and cardboard boxes that were seemingly placed at random throughout the corridor.

"Sorry, coming through..." a voice called out and Garret could see how Stanos moved to the next bulkhead where no boxes occupied the way. Considering the lack of space that was probably a good idea to have some areas where people weren't getting into each others way.

Garret and the four Marines looked for their own place to get out of the way. The person that had called out carried what looked like a spare part. In this case a part of a breaker system. Garret nodded to himself but than blinked as he looked at the man carrying the spare part.

At first he wanted to tell him to get himself a good shave, but there were many thing off about the Crewman. Namely the fact that a pair of yellow eyes with slitted pupils looked at him. As the man gave him a slightly embarrassed smile, Garret could see enlonged canines.

"Wha..."

Garret was stopped cold by a blue skinned and copper red haired being that was just about four feet tall but nearly wide enough to completely filling up what little space remained in the corridor. A rather thick copper red colored beard covered a good part of the beings face, neatly made into several braids. To make it even stranger, the being carried the rest of the breaker system, a part that had at least two hundred kilos like it was only about a tenth as heavy.

Garret and the Marines stared after the two crewmen carrying the spare parts down the corridor before Stanos called out behind them.

"Sir? The CIC is just around the corner."

Garret could only nod a little dumbly, trying to wrap his head around what he had just seen. The Marines were not much better off as they followed Stanos the last few meters towards _Leonidas_ CIC.

The door to the CIC opened showing that the CIC was rather small, compared to most other ships, but still looking very much like a standard CIC.

Half of the CIC crew however made Garret and his Marines stop right at the entrance. There were one of the blue skinned 'dwarfs' and two of these hairy, cat-eyed people. The most shocking part however were two other beings.

Colonial myths did know dragons, some of them were dumb beasts, while others were wise beings and now Garret saw two humanoid dragons in the CIC of a Colonial frigate. Both dressed in Colonial uniforms. One sat in front of a console, while the other was standing at the plot table next to one of three humans in the CIC, Stanos, Garret and the Marines not counted.

"What the frack..." one of the Marines voiced exactly what Garret thought.

The human and the dragon at the plot turned around and looked up from where they were doing something at the plot. As the turned, Garret could see a glowing green model of an asteroid floating above the plot.

Absentmindedly he noted that the human had the rank insignia of a Captain, while the dragon had those of a Lieutenant.

"Commander Garret," the human said and smiled as he walked up to them." Welcome aboard of _Leonidas_."

------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom Marvolo Riddle, currently going by the name of Lord Voldemort, scratched what passed as a chin as he looked at the fat man and the purple woman in front of him.

The current situation was very rare. Especially considering the nature of the Death Eaters. But currently the situation the whole world was in, was far from being normal.

"Well, General," he said and absentmindedly scratched the head of his pet snake." A very interesting proposal."

General Hugo Xinchub smiled thinly.

"I knew that you would say that, Tom," Xinchub noted with a smirk not unlike that of a cat that had just eaten a canary.

What passed as Voldemorts eyebrow twitched slightly at being called by his hated birth name. Normally he would have killed anyone calling him that at that instant, but right now Xinchub could prove to be very useful.

"I am very interested where you have... acquired that ship through..."

Again Xinchub smirked. To Voldemort it was very interesting to see that neither he nor his female companion were intimidated by Azkaban, nor about the fact that the present Death Eaters could kill them any moment they chose.

"Oh... that was relatively easy," he noted." We were actually surprised that the Doranians had such a bad internal security at their ship. And cloaking it via magical means wasn't a problem. Getting it out of there was a little more of a problem."

Voldemort nodded and continued to scratch what passed as his chin.

Getting a second base of operations, elsewhere without any muggles or mudbloods getting in the way and without having to worry about the Doranians had its positive sides. Not to mention getting to know more about the Doranians technology.

Maybe it would enable him to find a way to get that infamous 'Homecoming Prophecy' to have him as the returner.

If he had to work with these American Wizards and Witches, so be it. He could get rid of them later on.

"I will have to think about it," he said and leaned back in his throne." I will call for you if I have decided whether or not to work with you."

Xinchub smiled and nodded.

"Very good," he answered and slowly turned around to leave the room together with his companion.

The door closed behind them and the woman's face showed a frown.

"I still don't know why you want to work with that..."

Xinchub chuckled as they walked down the empty and dark corridor, folding his hands behind his back.

"He happens to be one of the most powerful wizards on Earth, Colonel," he noted." He could be very useful. Especially since he has come back from the dead."

"Ahhh..." she made," The Project."

Xinchub chuckled a bit.

"Galactic technology and genetics combined with magic should get it off quite nicely, don't you think?"

"I just hope we can contain him."

"I'm sure he will be able to the job quite nicely himself..."


	39. Chapter 39

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 38

------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Takano eyed the large holographic display in the center of the War Room. At the moment the display showed a display Manasarian Expanse, embedded into the stars around it.

Manasarian Expanse was what the massive Slipstream free zone around Kobol was called by the galactics, a zone where any Quantum Slipstream based technology simply ceased to work. It wasn't a slow process that turned off the Quantum technology, but rather a very sudden process. One moment everything worked, the other moment it didn't.

Whatever information they could save from destroyed pirate ships at Zaitaku, had included a number of generic datafiles about the Expanse. Not much more than the exact dimensions and warning to never ever go there. Apparently a Quantum Two ship that tried to go into the Zone had gone as deep as one lightyear after their slipstream ceased to work. It had been much luck that they had made it back out.

Currently there was a red and a green line going into and out of the Expanse. The red line had been the course of the Rag Tag Fleet around _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ on their way out of the Expanse towards the Liberty system. And the Liberty system was sitting about twenty light years away from the edge of the Zone. The green line was the course _Leonidas_ had taken to get into the Zone. It mostly followed the same course, but had done more stops.

Kobol, or rather the Kobol system, was a bright dot in the exact center of the Expanse. Originally Kobol had been tagged by the Ferrons to eventually send a science ship there and find out just what caused Quantum Slipstream technology to be not much than scrap in the Zone.

Now however things were different. About three quarter on the path from the Colonies to Kobol was the system where Galactica and the RTF had found a Thylium asteroid and now the green line stopped there. _Leonidas_ had found a Colonial ship there and possibly more human survivors.

Takano folded his hand behind his back.

And the Shogun was going to get in there to help them against the Cylons.

Right now a fleet half the size of the fleet that had saved Zaitaku, was going to be send into the Expanse to wage war against the Cylons and liberate the Colonies.

They would get to the Thylium Asteroid faster than Leonidas, mostly because they could chose the direct way, other than first going core and antispinwards into the Center of the Expanse and than change direction spinwards.

He absentmindedly noted that the Colonies could be glad that they were about half the way towards the center of the Zone, because the edge of the Zone on their direction was less than ten lightyears away from a major Jurian system.

He hmmmed as he looked at the hologram.

The entire Expanse was prime real estate. The Alliance had an FTL technology that allowed to get in and out. The Expanse was the best way to keep fleet bases, colonies and industrial facilities to keep hidden.

"We have the VDA in position, Admiral."

Takano nodded and frowned slightly. But there were a few other things. Considering the density of space going races in the galaxy there had to be at least twenty and at maximum fifty other civilizations in the Expanse, the Colonals and Cylons not counting.

"Get me a full hemisphere scan of the optical, near IR and near UV bands. And a EM band scan."

One thing you had to give Enesby and Jack, they had interesting ideas about things. Like the VDA, their latest idea...

They had taken the basics of the Ferron torpedoes, fitted them with a simple AI, a set of sensors, a communication array and a Hyperlight Drive. Currently there were about a hundred of them and with the right software you could send them out and they acted like large telescope, while still being single anti ship torpedoes, in an interferometric telescope.

Hence the name of Very Dangerous Array.

"The first data comes in, sir."

The part of the hologram he faced changed slightly, showing the real time image of the VDA.

"First scan complete," the technician said a minute later and Takano nodded.

"Mark any anomalies," he ordered." Anything in the near IR to optical that could be artificial in origin."

Thinking of civilizations that had to be STL, he remembered an old lecture during Academy, a lecture not thought anymore. It had taken a look on how to stealth STL ships moving between stars. It had come to the conclusion that it was close to impossible. Any sublight drive that could be used by a sub-Quantum civilization to go to the stars was extremely visible over lightyears. And at the same time there had been the conclusion that any of those sublight drives could be very well be used as a weapon system.

So Takano was only halfway surprised as about a dozen anomalies were displayed on the hologram, some of them deep within the Zone.

Again he nodded to himself. He felt that a good number of these anomalies were no already at their destination.

"Get me closeups of those anomalies if possible."

"Yes, sir."

Again it needed a few minutes until the first image appeared on the display, showing a shadow against a nebula in the background, trailing a bright glowing ball of energy behind. The shadow was cylindric in shape and it appeared as if some sort of funnel was facing into the flight direction.

"A Bussard Ramjet," a Jack, dressed smartly like a British Gentleman from the early thirties noted with an equally British dryness." Quite an extraordinary way to move between the stars."

Takano tried to ignore the Jack as he scratched his muzzle. It looked like he had found at least one civilization besides the known ones.

------------------------------------------------------------------

A loud alert screeched through the Command Center of _Romulus' Dream_ just as Primus Marcus Sycus tried to fight down the nauseating feeling of the jump just frictions of seconds before.

"Gods," he uttered as he held the dear life out of the closest handrail next to the entrance of the Command Center.

"What happened?" he than asked out loud, trying not to project an image of weakness to his crew, consisting of the brightest of the Republic of the Five.

"We have alert messages across the board," K'l's, his head engineer called out, four arms wildly working over the keyboards of his station." The reactor is offline."

Sycus tried to ignore the optical signals that flashed over the Coleoideas body, no doubt the curses of his kind.

Sycus was about to say something as a loud sound tore through the entire superstructure of _Romulus' Dream_ like someone used the entire ship like a over sized drum set of the legions.

He knew that sound, and what happened to make that sound. Another higher sound mixed into the first, making most communication impossible.

"Why are are the collector and reactor coils degaussing?" he asked as he switched to the small communication implant in his frontal lobe, for once thanking Jupiter that the Legion had made them mandatory.

K'l's focused him with his eyes for a moment before slinging another arm around a handrail to keep himself steady.

"The logs contain a sudden increase in resident magnetism in the coils," was his answer. "Looks like a long ranged jump magnetizes the coils much more than a short ranged jump."

Sycus cursed.

"And the reactor?" he wondered. "When can we reboot it."

If possible the noise of the degaussing coils increased and Sycus pushed a foot into another handrail to have his hands free to hold his ears closed. It only made matters worse as the noise was transferred through his skeleton. It had to be worse for K'l's. Without a skeleton and considering that five of his arms were connected to handrails on bulkheads, he had to get that horrible noise from five sides.

"Thirty minutes," was the answer." The storage rings contain enough change for that."

Slowly the noise reduced in intensity and Sycus breathes in deep.

"I want a full report on the jump."

He sighed and slowly removed his hands from his ears, before querying his internal chronometer. The degaussing had lasted about two minutes, longer than a normal degaussing after a normal journey. The induced magnetic fields in the coils from the jump had to be enourmous.

He pushed himself away from the bulkhead and towards navigation, placing his hand on the shoulder of Centurio Augustus Legato.

"Whats our position?" he asked his navigator.

The other Terran turned towards him and Sycus was ready to bet that he had never done this much work in such a short period of time before. Sycus knew that Legato had worked on several ships not unlike the _Romulus' Dream _before, but they had only made slower than light journeys between the planets and stars of the Five Stars with the crew being in stasis for most of the time, the sophisticated computer systems taking care of the ships, for the few years of the journeys.

Until the discovery of one of the derelict from the Exodus from Kobol, STL had been the only way to move between the Five Stars. Thankfully they were at most half a light year distant to each other.

"I'm still at it," he said and grit his teeth." I'm still looking for the pulsars. But as far as I can tell we are where we intended to be. Ten lightyears out from the Republic."

Sycus breathed in deep and shuddered. If something went wrong they would need at least a fifty years back to the Republic.

"How about the hydrogen tanks?"

"I got a problem with a few sensors in tank Bow-Three, but nothing out of the ordinary."

Sycus nodded again and pushed himself away from the navigation up into the canopy of the Command Center. He closed his eyes and send a short prayer towards Jupiter. Hopefully they would not run into an asteroid or something out here.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Garret sat down hard, staring at Captain Agathon. Next to Agathon Lieutenant Kijoshi looked back at Garret with amusement in his eyes.

"That is..."

"Quite the shock I would think," Kijoshi noted with the same amusement that was visible in his eyes.

"Aliens?"

Agathon rolled his eyes and Kijoshi snorted.

"Look around you, Commender," the Captain of _Leonids_ noted." With about three quarter of the crew being aliens its kind of hard to dismiss, isn't it? And I doubt that the Cylons would do something like this."

Garret breathed in deep and slowly nodded.

The Cylons couldn't be doing this. They were too bend on the destruction of all human life that they would create a trap that was even remotely like _Leonidas_. It would simply be too complex and if they had technologies like shields or energy weapons, they had surely used these technologies during the attack on the Colonies.

"The world had changed," Agathon continued." Compared to what is out there in the galaxy, outside of the security of the Null-Quantum Zone around Kobol where large Empires fight over the fate of the whole galaxy, the war between us and the Clyons is a sideshow."

Garret closed his eyes.

"And this isn't just about the Colonies. It's about Earth..."

Garret's eyes flew open.

"You said Earth?"

Agathon blinked.

"Uhm, yes?" he made and Kijoshi snickered.

Garret always had believed that Earth was somewhere out there. To him and several of the small sect of the Colonial Religion, Earth happened to be salvation. The Saviour of the Colonies would come from Earth, freeing the Colonies from oppression before saving his homeworld. But at the same time, they didn't believe that Earth was the home of the Thirteenth Tribe.

"What about Earth?" he asked, sitting straight up.

Agathon blinked once more.

"Well... Earth has been invaded a few years ago," he said and chuckled a little nervously." The Shin'bi have a ship close to Earth and are monitoring the planet for a liberation later on."

Garret again breathed in deep. He didn't know what to think of this.

"That's not all right?"

Agathon shook his head.

"The galaxy is a dangerous place, Commander," Kijoshi noted." The Liberation of Earth will not stop what is going on out there in the galaxy at large. No doubt the Doranians are not going to just let go of the planet."

The dragonoid stood up a little straighter.

"I believe that the Shogun will want to 'kick the Doranians in the balls' as Jack would put it," he said with a smirk." With the Liberation of Earth, at least the Shin'bi are going to go to war. And it would be best of the whole Cylon business was wrapped up by than and the Colonies freed."

"Don't forget the Ferrons," Agathon noted." Vega was also invaded by the Doranians."

Kijoshi chuckled.

"Did you get the latest news from Vega? It seems that the Ferrons give the Doranians a hard time in the outer system of Vega."

"And outer system at least two lightmonth large..."


	40. Chapter 40

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 39

------------------------------------------------------------------

Cavil narrowed his eyes as he glared at the display.

"What are they waiting for?" he wondered out loud, ignoring the babbling of the Hybrid like everyone else.

Simon said nothing as he too glanced at the display. They had come to the consensus that they would remain behind to make sure that everything was going well. Even if they would die here, when the nukes went off to destroy the asteroid and take the Colonials with them, they would be reborn back at the Resurrection Hub.

Right now the two vessels, the Defender and the frigate were docked with each other.

"They are valuable right now," Doral noted. "And we have a few Raiders left."

Simon eyed Doral for a moment. He was pretty sure that he knew what Doral had in mind.

"We could jump a Raider close in and have it ram the frigate. Without that ship and its force shield, we can take them out."

In the corner of his eyes Simon could see Cavil frown slightly.

"Actually," the oldest model noted," if we do that, we should use more than one Raider. Just to make sure."

Simon was unused that the two were not close to getting at each others throat.

"How many Raider based nukes do we have left?" Doral wondered and looked at Simon.

"Five," Simon said with a frown.

He wasn't really sure if they should sacrifice the Raiders, but on the other hand they had the chance of taking those ships out without loosing the asteroid and the mine. Thylium was a valuable element after all.

"Anyone against that plan?" Doral noted and looked at the two others.

Cavil and Simon nodded relucantly and Doral smiled lightly.

"It's a go than."

------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander Daniel Garret sighed as he glanced at the display in front of him.

He was back on the bridge of _EAS Sabre_, sitting on the Seat and glaring at the strange yellow light of this universes Jump Space.

At the moment his ship was moving deeper into the system, using Jump Space instead of the recently installed Hyperlight drive to make sure that they are not mistaken for the Heretics, as the Seekers called the bio-cybernetic Cylons.

That small frigate, the _Leonidas_, had used a Gold Channel, using an Earth Force Tachyon Communication system, with an Earth Force encryption. However they had gotten their hands onto Earth Force technology, they surely knew the difference between Hyperlight and Jump Space.

For a moment his eyes went towards the modified navigation console and the obviously Cylon build Pulsar Navigation system.

Only a race of robots would have been able to find out that pulsar stars were sending out pulses of tachyons the same way they send out electromagnetic waves. And that those pulses could be received by a modified tachyon detection array from a TADAR system. Only a specialized computer was needed to compute the position in Jump Space relative to Normal Space.

That the navigation system looked like the head of a Cylon was not really helping through. That red light pulsing from the left to the right was not going to sit well with them.

"Commander," the voice of his navigator noted." We have reached the coordinates of Leonidas and Thunderchild."

Garret breathed in deep and nodded.

"All engines full stop. Prepare to jump back into normal space."

------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry eyed the main screen and the massive form of _Galactica_ floating just in the line of sight of the camera. He had to say that the full armor belt of the old Battlestar made her more menacing than she had been before.

He glanced over towards the small tactical display floating next to him. To him is looked like a randomly selected group of ships. But in reality these ships were among the best the Alliance had to offer.

The large vessel in the rear of the formation had surprised Harry the most. The Ferrons had been willing to lend one of their Mobile Docks for the fleet and construct a forward base of operations. Three Grav Beam Frigates and two Missile Frigates had been designated to be the dedicated escort of the Dock.

There were also four Shin'bi transports floating close to the Dock, carrying Shin'bi Troops for any Ground Combat that might happen. It had to be at least one regiment worth of infantry, tanks, artillery and close air support. About three thousand soldiers.

Harry blinked. A few pieces of the military training that Ariel, Shinosuke, Jeff, Jack and Enesby had forced onto him seemed to have stuck in his head.

But even if the Shin'bi wanted him in command, Harry was more comfortable with Admiral Adama in general command of the fleet. Adama had much more experience with the Cylons, having fought in the First Cylon War and knew the capabilities of the new Cylons. Harry was just glad that Admiral Takano had seen it the same.

Harry was the first to admit that he was green behind the ears. He wasn't even twenty for Merlin's sake, and he was already the commander of a sentient warship, a sentient space station and what passed as Royalty for the Shin'bi.

Harry let go of a sigh, wishing that he could have remained behind, preferably having a nice date with Ariel, rather than looking at her sharp rear that...

He squeezed his eyes shut. Bad thoughts...

He forced his glance back at the tactical display and he couldn't help himself but glance at the six contact of the Salasian ships that hovered in close formation around _Enterprise_.

Captain Marcus had been less than willing to let aliens mess with the hardened and weathered technology of his ships, technology that had proven itself for thousands of years and underwent a steady evolution, but in the end Ariel had been able to get him to get a Hyperlight drive and the modified Hyperlight shield cores installed. But that was it.

Now they were glad that they had done it, as their shields still worked. Unlike the shields of their shuttles.

"Two minutes Jump warning!" rang through the Command Center of _Enterprise_, a new procedure that had been introduced by the Shin'bi in the last weeks.

Harry breathed in deep again. The last jump and they would get fully involved into the war between the Colonies and the Cylons.

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The loud alarm screeched out again as _Romulus' Dream_ came out of her second long ranged jump.

Sycus pressed his eyes shut for the moment to force down the nauseating feeling of the jump again. He doubted that we would ever really get used to it.

"Contact!" a voice called out from the sensory station and Sycus pushed himself over towards the station hanging above the holographic display of the _Dream_ that hovered in the geometric center of the Command Center.

"What do you got?" he wondered out loud as he placed a hand on the shoulder of Ketrion.

The three meters tall Rutilus, turned around slightly, his eyes never leaving the display in front of him.

"Three unknown contacts," he said and he looked nervous." One of them is directly in front of the..."

The loud buzzing, drumming sound of the collector and reactor coils sounded through the entire ships superstructure again.

Sycus went pale. He had been able to hear it. It had been 'intake'.

His hand flashed forward and with a few quick stroked he brought up the image of a camera that was placed inside the intake. The image was grainy, mainly because if the massive magnetic forces created by the degaussing, but it was enough to see what happened right in front of them.

Intellectually Sycus knew that the magnetic forces of the degaussing weren't even a percent of the full strength of the collector, but they were strong enough to let him see a unique display.

The ship directly in front of them looked like an over sized silver star, but slowly it began to glow red as the collector coils induced high powered currents that heated the hull material.

Sycus couldn't help himself but look at the display as the red glowing hull turned white. By now the crew of that ship had to be dead, flash fried and by now turned into charcoal by the heat.

The same currents that heated the hull had another effect, creating magnetic fields on their own.

Sycus and Ketrion swallowed as the arms of the star shaped ship ruptured, sending white glowing metal into all directions right before their eyes. There were no primary or secondary detonations, just the magnetic fields ripping the white glowing remains of what used to be a ship apart.

Only a moment later the coils stopped their degaussing program and silence reigned in the Command Center.

"Oh frack," Ketrion summed up and breathed in deep.

Sycus on the other hands was close to shaking. A possible first contact with a civilization outside the Five Stars and something like this happened.

Ketrion changed his display back to the general LIDAR screen only to swallow and slam his hand down onto the General Alarm button next to him.

"Inbound missiles!" he called out." Impact in five seconds."

Sycus swallowed again. That was far too little time to activate the point defense systems of the _Dream_. He would have never thought that he would get into a situation like this after the Belt Rebellion fifty years ago.

His hands gripped closer around the back rest of Ketrion's seat.

"Emergancy Jump!" he all but screamed out, glad that the Legion had installed two Jump Drives instead of only one.

A second later four missiles impacted into one of the _Dreams_ bow tanks. Four ten kiloton warheads detonated on the surface of a tank that contained several million tons of cryogenic hydrogen.

Each of the six bow and six stern tanks of the _Dream_ were build out of carbon fullerene composites was able to keep its contents for several dozen years without any loss or loosing temperature. Even a micrometeorite impact couldn't really harm these tanks.

Now the heat of fourty kilotons were directly directed into one of the tanks. The outer hull of the tank ruptured away from the hull into the direction of the warheads as the flash heated cryogenic hydrogen increased its volume nearly instantly.

The massive bulk of the _Dream_ was pulled around like a car hit by another car, more rapid than a ship of its size should have been able to.

Sycus, who had tried to keep himself steady against the backrest of the sensory station was unable to hold himself. He sailed through the Command Center as the ship tumbled away from the impact and came to an abrupt rest against a bulkhead.

He was able to hear several bones break before he lost consciousness. He was not the only one to be send tumbling through the ship.

He was unable to see how alarms came online across the board and the automatic controls tried to steady the massive ship.

Truly massive reaction control systems fired, sending loud bangs through the super structure of the ship. For a moment the equally massive secondary drive systems of the _Dream_, a photonic drive utilizing powerful lasers, fired for just a moment.

As the secondary drive fired, it used up half the charge of the super conducting ring capacitors and send the energy flash vaporizing half of a second silver star shaped ship.

A moment later, the massive Bussard Collector ship flashed out of existence as its Hyperlight drive ignited, the crew unconscious.

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The air close to Edinburgh was rapidly displaced as a massive steel gray monster appeared close to the Doranian compound of Edinburgh with a flash of blue light.

Its massive turret with two 14" ship artillery guns turned around, the massive barrels leveling at the buildings of the Doranian base.

The massive body of the oversized tank shuddered as the guns fired, hurling two nearly one ton weighting shells directly into the large building that was the regional control center of the Doranians. Each of the shells slammed into the building, burrowing themselves half into the reinforced concrete before detonating, sending concrete and steel flying into every direction.

Behind the turret on the main body, four VLS cells opened up, sending a wave of four MLRS rockets streaking straight into the air.

As the massive turret turned around slightly to point into the direction of a landed Doranian troop transport, the four missiles turned level and their modified targeting systems found their targets.

The pair of 14" guns fired again, this time the shells impacted into the transport, ripping open the thin armor like tissue paper before detonating. The primary and secondary detonations ripped the transport into shreds as the turret turned around yet again as its four threads began to turn and propel the massive tank forward, the pair of smaller secondary turrets now turning around to look for targets.

On the other side of the Doranian base, the missiles descended, slamming into the bases of four watch towers guarding the largest slave camp of the British Isles.

Deep within the massive tank, Fred and George Weasley, grinned wide, Fred going as far as laughing an evil laugh as he targeted the bases main armory with the main turret.

"You are having way too much fun," Doctor Kevyn Andreyasn noted with a frown, operating the reactor and Teraport system, while George drive the massive tank.

"Allow them to have a little fun," the voice of the ghost that possessed the tank, Erwin Rommel noted from behind him." I can understand that they do have fun."

Kevyn eyed the resident ghost.

"Doesn't mean that I have to like it."

"Yehaw," came from Fred as the armory was reduced to rubble while George giggled as the threads ground a group of Doranian soldiers in Heavy Powered armor into the ground.

"But you have to say that this tank is faster than it should be," Rommel noted.

"No wonder with these owerpowered engines and the reactor."

Another pair of missiles streaked up from the tanks VLS as Rommel shook his head.

"I'd say that we have the Doranians sufficiently distracted."

Kevyn nodded, throwing another frown into the direction of the twins.

"Good, call in the Cavalry to free the slaves."


	41. Chapter 41

The Way Home – Going Home rework

by Warringer

Chapter 40

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Garret was sitting on one of the seat in the rather sparse CNC of _Leonidas_. There were simply too many things going through his head to really think straight.

That Agathon and Kijoshi were still looking at him with a certain amusement wasn't really helping matters either.

On one hand he had learned that some parts of his religious believes as a member of the small Divisionist Sect of the Colonial faith. Earth did exist and it seemed that Earth wasn't colonized by the Thirteenth Tribe. Earth was under oppression from aliens of all things and there was one human from Earth who was in command of a ship, a station and a whole world and would eventually free Earth again.

Right after freeing the Twelve Colonies.

The Oracle of Athenes had been correct.

The revelation hit him like a punch. But where was the Thirteenth Tribe?

He breathed in deep and tried to gather his thoughts as an alarm blared through the small CNC.

He looked up and his head whirled around towards the small blue skinned woman sitting in front of the DRADIS systems.

"Hostile Contact," she called out while he could hear a strange whirr going through the hull of _Leonidas_." AEGIS system just went to Armageddon Self Defense Modus."

There was another whirr resonating through the frigates superstructure, followed by several high pitched whines.

"Threat dealt with by the AEGIS system," she called out as the hull was silent again." Two Cylon Raiders, nuclear armed, jumped in on ten klicks. They were ready to fire their missiles when they were destroyed."

Garret blinked and than blinked again before his head turned slightly to look at Agathon.

"Aegis?" he asked." The Shield of Athena?"

"Close," Agathon said with a chuckle." Its an integrated combat system we got from Babylon 4. A computer system that controls all our weapon systems and can act as autonomous defense system in this case."

"You mean..."

Agathon nodded.

"Yes," he noted," this ship is heavily networked. And no, the Cylons have no way to get into our systems. Not only are the computer completely different to Colonial systems, we also have very advanced firewalls."

"Good than..."

Another alarm went through the CNC and again everyone turned towards Astral.

"Contact," she called out again." Fifty ships. Its the Allied Fleet."

A holographic display lit up above the Central Plot. It showed that the fleet had jumped out just around _Leonidas_ and _Thunderchild_. Garret immediately saw the familiar icon of a Colonial warship and the even more familiar signature of _Galactica_.

"They..."

She suddenly stopped.

"Two Raiders jumped in," she called out in alarm and on the plot a pair of red dots appeared, only to disappear as suddenly as they came next to a ship that was IDed as 'POF-BC-001 _Thora's Revenge_".

Astral was silent for a few moments and Garret noted, to his horror that the two Raiders had jumped in from the other side than before. While _Leonidas_ had taken care of the first two Raiders, the second pair would have been able to hit his _Thunderchild_ if that other ship hadn't been in the way.

"The Raiders simply impacted into Petey," she said stunned." I read four 50kt nuclear detonations on Petey's hull."

Garret swallowed. Four 50kt nukes as direct surface impacts. Those could destroy a flight pod of a battlestar.

Than he blinked.

"Petey?"

Agathon shook his head and smirked a little.

"Get me an image of Petey," he said and the hologram over the Central Plot changed to show a flat warship with a number of turret on its surface. "This is Petey. One of three Ferron Battle Cruisers. The whole ship is automated and controlled by a central AI. And I doubt that he has more damage done to his armor than loosing one or two meters."

Garret's eyes widened.

"AI? Like..."

Agathon nodded and sobered.

"Like Cylons, yes. You better get used to it. There are more AIs in the fleet than just Petey. And they are all friendly. And the only free AIs in the whole galaxy besides the Cylons."

"Sir, I got Admiral Adama on wireless."

------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry breathed in deep as the jump happened and the familiar feeling of pulled through the ear of a needly by his stomach settled.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. Or close the wall up with our English dead!"

He blinked and raised an eyebrow as he glanced over towards von Bismark. The German shrugged.

"I believe that quote its appropriate," he noted," We are pretty much going to war."

"We have positive contact with _Leonidas_ and _Thunderchild_," Hiroshi, the Shin'bi manning the sensors called out, Shinosuke having been replaced to become the Shin'bi advisor of Harry. "Petey is closest to them, nine clicks. We..."

He stopped and looked up as an alarm glared through the bridge of _Enterprise_.

"Two unknown contacts," the strange voice of GLaDOS called out," they jumped out of Hyperlight one click of Petey's hull."

The Jurian Tree/Jacks 'Daughter' giggled.

"Only to promptly impact into Petey's port hull. Four 50kt detonations. Petey notes that he has lost one of the fifty meters Armor on Section Port Five. He doesn't report any more problems."

Harry breathed in again and shook his head. A nice firework, he notes sourly.

"What is the status of the Fleet?" he wondered.

"Every ship reports nominal status. Galactica is in contact with _Leonidas_ and _Thunderchild_."

Harry nodded.

"Put it on the speakers."

"...glad that you could make it, Admiral," the voice of Helo came over the speakers.

"And I'm glad to see more survivors," Adama said." We needed surprisingly little political haggling to get the fleet together."

"I'd like to know why you managed to do that..." Helo answered with a tone of mock awe.

The conversation between the Colonial ships was cut short as Harry heard an alarm pick up simultaneous on _Galactica_ and _Leonidas_. Only to blare through the bridge of _Enterprise_ a moment later.

"Attention," GLaDOS noted again," Jump Point forming at Ventral Starboard, fifty klicks distance."

He than blinked. A jump Point? That was only created by Earth Force Jump Engines or Jump Portals...

"On screen," he said and the display changed to show a yellow funnel blossomed into space. A dark shape shot out of the two dimensional funnel only to slow down rapidly as it left the two dimensional outerdimensional construct.

"Earth Force IFF transponder," Hiroshi called out." IDed as _FFGX-236P001 EAS Sabre_, presumed lost in Jump Space 2245 at Vega on a Recon Mission, according to the files of Babylon 4."

Harry blinked. The Babylon 4 files also listed the _Maru_ as having gone missing in Jump Space. For a moment he wondered if all Earth Force ships that were listed as being 'Lost in Jump Space' had appeared here.

"_Sabre_ is not routing energy to its weapons," Hiroshi added.

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Commander Daniel Garret of _EAS Sabre_ was nervous right now. He had expected to find only a pair of Colonial ships, _Leonidas_ and _Thunderchild_, but not a whole fleet of about fifty ships.

Several of those ships were Colonial designs, a Battlestar, already IDed as _Galactica_ and several more Frigates like _Leonidas_. The thing that was not sitting well with him however was a ship that liked like the unholy union of the frontal half of a Hyperion and, what he could best describe as a wooden Narn ship.

And the Earth Force IFF transcoders on all ships were not helping either. And that Hyperion hybrid was called _Enterprise_ of all things...

"For all what's holy," he said and breathed in deep." Do not route energy to the weapons. You know what happened when Jankowski did..."

He could hear several of his bridge crew swallowing.

"We are being hailed by the _Galactica_," the radio operator noted a moment later and Garret only nodded.

"This is Admiral Adama of the Battlestar _Galactica_," a gruff sounding voice was heard over the channel," Identify yourselves."

Garret breathed in deep.

"Commander Daniel Garret of the Earth Force Frigate _Sabre_," he answered." We don't want to cause any trouble."

The channel was silent for a few moments.

"Earth Force, huh?" Adama asked." You're ship was listed as 'lost in Jump Space' in 2245..."

"Wha..." was all Garret could make and blinked a few times, stunned." Where..."

He heard Adama chuckle once.

"I believe that it's a long story..."

Garret breathed in deep and closed his eyes for just a moment and shook his head clear.

"I think we have a long story for you as well," she said and cleared his throat." And someone who wants to help you..."

Before either of them could say anything more, they were interrupted by an alarm going off on _Galactica_.

"What is this?" he heard someone say in the background of _Galactica_," Grand Central Station on Caprica?"

A moment later the alarm also went through the bridge of Sabre.

"Unknown Contact, one hundred klicks dorsal port."

Garret fingered on the display in front of him, changing it to see what the new contact was. The telephoto lens of the external dorsal camera was able to catch the new contact, showing a massive cylindric shape that slowly rotated around all three axis, all but tumbling through space.

According to the RADAR systems the whole ship was longer than _Galactica_ and divided in three sections, with the front and aft sections being covered by what looked like orange colored external tanks of massive proportions. And each of those tanks had to be as long as one of _Galactica_s pods. The central section was not unlike the spheric rotating section of an Asimov liner back home.

As the ship roated, Garret swallowed as he noted that one of the tanks had raptured and the surrounding tanks appeared to be damaged, leaking something into the depth of space.

The two tanks next to the damaged suddenly burst wide open, emptying themselves into space and making the tumble even more chaotic.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Bloody Hell!"

Harry now stood in front of The Chair, staring at the display that showed the unknown ship that had just jumped in.

"The ship appears to be a Bussard Ramjet," GLaDOS noted analytically." The tanks contained liquid hydrogen."

Harry turned around and glared at the remote of the ships partly organic and technological intelligence before he all but sprinted towards the communication console.

"Get me the _Rofus' Port_," he said, referring to the massive Mobile Drydock." We need to help the crew of that ship."

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Petey's avatar on his empty bridge frowned.

He could imagine, or rather simulate what had happened to the unknown ship that had just jumped in. One of the massive tanks had already ruptured and now two more had followed the first. It was only a matter of time until the other frontal tanks would burst and send the ship in more and more chaotic tumblings.

A scan of the ship showed him that it had neither artificial gravity, only simulated, nor inertia dampeners. It had also showed four hundred twenty six life forms on the ship, ninety one of them being human or at least very close to being human.

The crew would most likely not survive it if more tanks burst.

Sure he himself had just been hit by four nuclear missiles, but they had done little more than cosmetic damage.

He turned his bulk around, moving towards the massive ship, ready to grab it with his gravitic tractor beams to steady it and make rescue attempts easier.

Just as the frontal part of the unknown ship passed close to a massive iron-nickel asteroid, massive magnets in the front activated and fed high energies into space.

Petey payed it no mind as he moved closer to the ship, even glad that the magnetic field was transferring some of the ships angular momentum to the asteroid by dragging it along ever so slightly. Even as a part of the asteroid began to turn red and the surface slowly melted, he didn't care, keeping himself outside the magnetic field.

His tractor beams reached out and grabbed the ship just as the magnetic field disappeared again and he slowly steadied the ship, making sure that he didn't transfer too much force to the ship and injured the crew further.


	42. Chapter 42

The Way Home

by Warringer

Chapter 41

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The Republicans said that felines always landed on their feet. But there were some who didn't.

Shu-Len-H'ey was one of those. He lay against the bulkhead he had been thrown into as the tank had ruptured, his left arm broken in at least two places.

For a moment, he wished that he had listened to his mother and mated with that nice girl from next door. By now they would have had a few kids and she would get the money into the family while he would take care of the kittens.

But no, he had to prove himself to the Republican and Rutilus males of his Academy class and register with the Legion. He was sure that his mother would chew him out should they ever make it home. Going on about why he had to come after her and not after his father. And his father would just shake his head and take care of Shu-Len's latest sibling.

He pressed his eyes shut and grit his teeth trying to force the pain of the broken arm away. He licked his lips lightly before breathing in and trying to stand up. The rotation the ship was in created something of an artificial gravity that pressed him against the bulkhead.

Yet each movement hurt his arm and he only could chose to growl out in pain. He turned his head lightly, seeing that his arm bent in unnatural ways and he was sure that one or maybe two bones were sticking out of the skin, only contained by the skinsuit that was regular issue for the Naval Legion.

A thought shot through his head and he stopped, cursing himself of not thinking about it earlier. He breathed in again and accessed the system of his skinsuit with his cortical implant, ordering it to release a painkiller into his system. It needed a few moments until it began to work and the pain of his arm became a dull throbbing feeling.

He sighed and gave another short order, stiffening the material around his left arm to still it like he had learned in the Basic First Aid course.

A long drawn wailing scream came from close by and his head shot up abruptly, his breath coming faster as he recognized it.

"Frack," he cursed out loud, something his father would have not approved of.

Only than he felt how the gravity of the spinning ship lessened. He had only been able to hear the degaussing of the main coils and there were no sound of the emergency reaction controls firing. Someone had to help them right now.

A moment later he was standing back on his feet and for the first time since regaining consciousness pressed against the bulkhead and knew why he had heard the scream, just as it came again.

The whole ship was vibrating and whoever was screaming had to be trapped somehow and the vibrations made it only more of a problem.

He looked up towards the lock where the scream had come from.

Secondary Engineering III, near to SESS IV, Supraconducting Energy Storage System. There were many things that could be forced out of their mountings by the force of the rupture. Someone had to be trapped beneath something.

Right of the top of his head it could only be Princepales Mikor, one of the main engineers and the only one who could be there right now, as he had said that he needed take a look at the SESS IV ring after getting some problematic log entries.

Mik'or had mused that the jumps were not doing good for the SES systems.

Shu-Len cursed silently, looking up. Okay sure he was a good climber and likely to be able to get up to the lock, but right now he had a broken arm.

He breathed in deep and swallowed. He, like every other spacer had developed a fine sense for changing gravity and right now it looked looked the gravity would be dropping down to microgravity in ten minutes.

He might not like Mik'or, but if he was not helping him, the old man could die.

He stared up. It was only twenty or so meters.

Again he swallowed and walked over towards the currently vertical bulkhead of the microgravity corridor. His legs were shaking as he reached out for one of the currently horizontal handrails, hoping that they could hold his body wight.

He needed at least five minutes until he had reached the lock and grabbed the lower part of the opening.

He swallowed again and felt panic raising up, as Mik'or had continued to scream as he had scaled the currently vertical bulkhead. Gravity had dropped to about a third standard by now as he pulled himself over the edge and peered into Secondary Engineering III.

He cursed again as he saw the mess inside.

One of the massive workbenches had torn itself out of its mountings and crashed through a good number of consoles and other apparatuses before coming to rest against a bulkhead, denting it at several places and trapping Mik'or between it and the bulkhead.

"Frack," Shu-Len cursed again," Frack, frack, frack."

It was at least ten meters down to the bulkhead. The good part was the dropping gravity, but at the same time the vibrations going through the hull visibly shook the massive workbench as it lay over the Princepales.

He breathed in deep and pulled himself up over the edge. Only to loose balance and drop down on the other side.

"Frack!"

And again he didn't land on his feet. Instead he literally flopped down against the bulkhead with his stomach, driving the air out of his lungs.

Slowly he got back to his feet, the pain in his arm once again flaring up. Just like pain flared up in his chest. He pressed his eyes shut as his right hand began to feel around on his chest, finding that he had just managed to break two ribs.

He got himself another dose of pain-killers before he slowly tried to make his way towards Mik'or.

"Frack," he cursed once again as he saw the old man.

The Malacostraca was laying under the workbench, his abdominal shell being trapped by the heavy object. From his point of view, Shu-Len could see that the shell was cracked at several places and that the clear liquid that was the Malacostraca's blood was seeping out of it.

For a moment he wondered how Mik'or managed to make such a wailing scream, but shook of the question as he hurried towards the old Principales. Normally someone else would have stopped to ask if Mik'or was okay, but Shu-Len could see that he was not okay.

"Can you move?" he asked instead, grabbing the lower part of the massive workbench with his right hand, his left dangling useless at his side.

He could see how the eyes of the old man turned slightly.

"I never thought that I'd be happy to see one of you frakking Kartanin," Mik'or managed to get out, obviously in pain.

"You can curse," Shu-Lin said, trying to smile," that is a good sign."

"Just get me out of here..."

Shu-Len just nodded and breathed in deep, before trying to pull the workbench up. Even through the artificial gravity had dropped down to one tenth standard, the thing was still massive and heavy.

Eventually he managed to pull the workbench up far enough to allow Mik'or to pull his abdomen out of the crack.

"Frack," Shu-Len cursed out again as he saw the damaged abdominal shell of the Malacostraca.

It was cracked in more than one place and he was rapidly loosing blood. He didn't know much about the Malacostraca body, but he was sure that this was a bad thing. Meanwhile gravity had dropped to microgravity and he could hear Mik'or sigh lightly as he began to float, carrying growing bubbles of transparent blood with him.

Shu-Len swallowed. He had to stop the bleeding somehow he thought with a growing panic. His eyes darted around as he began to float in Secondary Engineering III before stopping as he found a roll of yellow plastic material.

"Duct tape," he said silently, before pushing himself towards the roll of yellow tape, grabbing it.

Glancing back towards Mik'or, he noted that the old man was not moving anymore.

"Frack," he cursed out loud once more, pushing himself back towards the old Princepales.

Holding the roll with the left hand, he tore a long strip of tape from the roll, before pressing it against the Malacostraca's shell, hoping that it was able to seal the cracks and keep the blood inside.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry glanced over at the display that showed the unknown Ramscoop ship floating next to Petey, while a Shin'bi transport was moving closer to render assistance to the crew.

Than his eyes moved back to the conference hologram of Admiral Adama, Captain Agathon and Commander Garret of _Thunderchild_.

Right now dealing with the Cylons had priority to dealing with Sabre and the unknown Ramscoop.

"We got several nuclear mines on that asteroid," Helo noted." Once we are close enough, the Cylons will blow up the entire asteroid."

"That is a problem," Adama noted with a grim look on his face." Any ideas how to deal with them?"

"We could jump some of our Vipers close to the mines and destroy them from close up," Harry said, wanting to try and get in a good idea.

"Sounds great," Helo said only to frown." Only that the Cylons are running patrols around that asteroid with their remaining Raiders. They would alert the refinery when they notice out Vipers and blow the asteroid up."

Adama simply nodded, while Garret looked very uncomfortable. The Colonial was not used to the holographic display.

"My Emperor," Harry heard a rumble from behind himself and groaned lightly as he turned slightly to look at Aleksandr in full armor." May I make a suggestion?"

Once again he wondered what had possessed Jack to build these massive powered armors he called 'Terminators'. It increased the bulk of the Space Wolf two times at least and made him wonder how the heck he was even able to move.

"Sure, go ahead," he said.

On the display, Garret looked very uncomfortable and whispered something to Helo, only to receive a chuckle and a whisper back.

Aleksandr on the other hand grinned widely, showing just how much of a werewolf still remained in him.

"My Marines are willing to teleport directly onto the surface of the asteroid to destroy the mines without being seen by the heretical Iron Men."

Adama blinked a few times and than scratched his chin.

"Can you do that?" he wondered.

Before Harry could say something the electronic singsong voice of GLaDOS piped up.

"I am equipped with the latest in Jurian teleporting technology," the ship said." Not as advanced as the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device I an Jack are currently developing through."

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"I could also deploy a squad of Tactical Marines directly to the refinery to take it from inside."

Adama got a gleam in his eyes and Aleksandr's grin intensified.

"Sounds promising," Adama said.

"And since the Cylons are only scanning space..." Helo added with a smirk.

Harry simply nodded. Knowing Aleksandr and his Marines they were itching for a fight. Especially now that they had increased their number.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aleksandr grinned behind the massive helmet of his Terminator Armor. He remembered training with Terminator squads back at the Fang, but he had never seen them being as agile as the Terminator Armor that had been developed by the Machine Spirits of Babylon 4 and _Enterprise_, calling it Aperture Science T-800 Terminator Armor. It was very close to being as agile as a normal armor.

His grin widened as he felt himself being pulled out of the familiar surroundings of _Enterprise_'s 'Transporter Room' only to be deposited in a dark sparsely lit corridor.

Immediately the com gear of his suit interfaced with the gears of the other Marines, all of them Blood Claws that came from the Colonial Survivors and had requested to be included into the squad.

He chuckled as he took the first step in the artificial gravity of the refinery to walk down the corridor the others following him. Just moments ago his other Marines had taken care of the mines, destroying them by close combat before teleporting back to the _Enterprise_.

Now came the fun part of this operation. Taking a few heretical Iron Men apart, through they were under orders of the Emperor to not kill any of the 'biological Cylons'.

A moment later a red alarm flashed through the corridor and Aleksandr was sure that the commanders of this refinery were panicking as their mines didn't work.

Only a few more moments later the first of the glistening metal abominations rounded the corner and glared back at them. The red eyes on their head wished from one side to the other before their claws folded back into runs.

Aleksandr laughed as they opened fire, the bullets pinging off his armor like peddled bounced of a wall.

"CHARGE!" he called out to his brothers, making sure that the external speakers of this Armor were activated." FOR THE EMPEROR! REVENGE FOR THE TWELVE COLONIES!"

He continued to stand there as he watched how the other Marines charged forwards.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" they screamed as one, bolters and plasguns firing." REVENGE FOR THE TWELVE COLONIES!"

It was good to be a Space Marine.


	43. Chapter 43

The Way Home

by Warringer

Chapter 42

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Commander Asuma of the Saota Clan, commander of the Hikaru Tenno class Light Attack Cruiser _Fukumishisan_, chuckled a little as he glanced over to the floating form of the Colonial Priest who was currently busy to let his lunch get through his head a second time.

He shook his head slightly and turned around towards Enesby.

"Okay," he said as he glanced at the AI using his own language so that the Colonial didn't understand it," I believe you are owing me an explanation why you have gotten the Shogun's permission to dance in and pretty much take command of my ship."

It was more curiosity and of course wanting to know the real reasons behind this whole operation of simply jumping into the Kobol No-Slipstream Zone. Everyone, including the shogun had been fed with a story about the ship looking around for other possible Colonial Rag Tag Fleets going in around the Colonies.

Asuma didn't buy it. Such an operation would have needed several dozen ships, not a single one. Another thing were the Colonial and the pair of Bio-Cylons Enesby had gotten aboard his ship.

Enesby smirked lightly.

"Not buying it, eh?" the maraca shaped AI noted with amusement.

"Nope," Asuma responded with a smirk and the toothpick switched from one side of his muzzle to the other. He would have preferred to smoke, but that would be a waste of oxygen and air scrubbers.

"I had the feeling that you wouldn't, Commander."

Asuma raised an eyeridge.

"Oh?"

Enesby smirked a little more.

"You are an intelligent man. And even if you are in command of the _Fukumishisan_, your career is filled with a number of 'incidents'."

Asuma snorted.

"A nice description," he noted wryly, getting a laugh out of Enesby.

"Our job is not to look for other Rag Tag Fleets, Commander," Enesby said and turned sober." I just want to try and find a way to stop an unnecessary war."

Asumas other eyeridge rose only to chuckle a moment later.

"I see," he said." A little black ops diplomacy?"

"Something like that," Enesby answered." The Cylons are the only free civilization of cybernetic intelligences. I would like to preserve that."

Than he chuckled.

"And get their infrastructure for our needs. If... when we free Earth, we are going to run into an entire stellar nation. Not to mention that we are going to be caught between rock and a hard place concerning both the Munbari and the Jurians."

Asuma nodded.

"They would take much strain from us," he said, waving a hand around to indicate that he was taking about his race.

"Exactly," Enesby said and gave something that could be seen as a nod." Especially considering their Resurrection and cloning technologies. I can see a good number of civilian uses for it."

"We just need to get them from trying to destroy all mankind."

Enesby chuckled again.

"Considering the galaxy, it will present a challenge to them to destroy all humans. The Jurians are human, as are a good number of races under them and the Minbari. I'd think we are talking about a few hundred trillion humans..."

Asuma blinked a few times and than swallowed.

"And I thought six billion Shin'bi were many..."

"Nope they are not."

Asuma breathed in deep.

"It still doesn't explain the priest..."

Enesby smirked again.

"Brother Cavil is a Cylon infiltrator..."

Asuma blinked once and than eyed the rather green 'Colonial'.

"He's doing a good job at pretending to be a human..."

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Simon was running through the seemingly endless corridors of the Cylon Refinery. He was litterally sweating from all pores, trying to make his way to a Raider or any place where he would be safe.

Panic rose up in him as he heard the clank of metal on metal as giant feet made contact with the metal floors of the refinery.

His eyes darted around as he swallowed. He knew that he was going to die. He and his brothers had a guilty pleasure in watching Colonial Science Fiction and Horror movies and this whole situation reminded him of those movies when an unsuspecting crew came over an alien derelict ship and got slaughtered to the last man or woman who would manage to flee somehow.

Following a sudden gut feeling he darted to the left into a corridor that lead deeper into the maze that happened to be the interior of the Thylium refinery.

"For the Emperor!" he head a distant inhuman voice scream." Revenge for the Colonies!"

He swallowed again as the scream was followed by the high pitched sound of a weapon that was very much like a chain saw striking metal.

There were also distant gunshots ringing through the maze of corridors, tanks, tubes and other machinery, combined with the stomping of the giant armored feet.

Normally his mind was analytical, like that of his brothers, but now he found himself being unable to thing things through, his body pumped full with adrenaline and various hormones that only pushed him deeper into the panic no Cylon had ever felt before.

What was left of his analytical mind for the moment wondered what had gone wrong.

The first indication had been that the nukes that were meant to destroy the asteroid and the fleet once it jumped in, stopped to transmit their ready signals at the exactly same time, and didn't take the command to detonate.

Than THEY had somehow appeared inside the refinery. It was as if the massive armored figures, each larger than a Centurion, had simply FTL jumped into the facility.

Of course Cavil and Doral had ordered their Centurions to go and kill THEM, but the cameras has shown that even the HE bullets used by some Centurions had been simply shrugged off by THEM. None of them had even managed to put a dent into the armor of THEM.

That was when they first heard the war-cries of THEM.

For a moment they had wondered who this Emperor was, before a strange fear gripped them as THEY screamed about revenge for the Colonies.

With heavy weapons and those strange chain-SWORDS, THEY had simply waded through anything they had been able to throw at THEM. Not even the anti-Landram missile the refinery had just-in-case, had only managed to remove the arm of one of the armored figures.

Only to have them see how a massive flesh and bone arm regrew from the created stump, with the figure in question seeming not to care that the arm had just been blown off besides grabbing the massive weapon with the freshly regrown limb.

The massive steps moved closer and Simon tried to run faster, his head turned around to look behind himself. He didn't notice the wall in front of him and slammed into it. He bounced off the wall and fell over. He landed on his stomach and dizzily looked up.

"Peekaboo," a grim loud voice called out and Simon head whipped around only to face one of the giant monsters," I see you..."

Simon rolled around and only managed to sit up. His panic increased several times as the massive figure very slowly stalked closer one massive footstep after the other.

Simon scrambled backwards, unable to take his eyes off the frowning skull like visage of the monsters helmet. His scrambling stopped as his back met with one of the walls.

He began shaking all over and he was sure that he would die. Really die, not able to reincarnate on the Hub.

A hand of the monster reached up and grabbed the helmet. There was a hissing sound and some steam coming from the helmet. The hand pulled up and pulled the massive helmet off the monsters head, letting Simon look into a human face.

But face was the wrong way of naming it. It was more of a visage of hatred. A pair of yellow eyes bored themselves into Simon, the lips pulled up to a snarl, allowing to Simon to see the white teeth that were more those of a dagit than those of a human.

The visage of hatred turned into a nasty smile, increasing Simon's panic.

"You will live," the monster said and let go of a howling laugh that made Simon loose control over his bowels.

In a fit of panicked strength Simon managed to jump up and run away.

There was the thundering sound of a gunshot and a sudden stab of pain shot through Simon's right leg. Only to be followed by another gunshot and a stab of pain in his right leg.

Simon collapsed on the ground and rolled around. Or at least he tried. He stopped trying to roll around as he looked at the served lower leg of someone. Only than he noticed that it was his own leg.

He screamed more in fear and panic than of actual pain and looked over his shoulder.

The monster behind him was still grinning and pointed a massive handgun at Simon.

"But I never said that I won't get revenge for my sister in Thebes."

Simon tried to crawl away from the monster that had just blown off his legs before one of the massive feet came to rest on his back, effectively stopping him as well as breaking his back.

"Good night, Cylon," the snarling voice of the monster said.

Before darkness claimed Simon, he noted that Thebes was a city on Saggitaron.

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Kentaro of the Yamachi clan was one of the medics that had moved to the Ferron Mobile Drydock _Port __Anacreon_ with his Mobile Ambulance and Surgery Hospital, setting up camp inside the rather large crew quarters of the massive station.

About a quarter as large as Babylon 4, _Port Anacreon_ was a modified standard Mobile Drydock and able to house several thousand people. Right now most of them were either Shin'bi support personal or ground combat troops.

Right now the halls of the massive station was buzzing with activity. Just a few moments ago _Port Anacreon_ had moved closer towards Petey, who had unloaded a damaged unknown ship that now rested in one of the stations production bays.

A good number of expandable multi docking ports had locked with the hull of the starship and cut open existing airlocks to be able to get inside, while the docking ports themselves had been welded to the hull.

Shin'bi personal was streaming into the massive ship, trying to help as best as they could.

Kentaro breathed in deep as he dove down one of the micro gravity corridors with his medic team, his wings beating now and then to propel him through the stale air inside the ship, that told him that the scrubbers were not working.

They rounded a corner and Hiro, one of Kentaro's teammates, got a length of pipe into his side, wielded by a human. Another improvised weapon, looking very much like a crowbar sailed towards Kentaro, who ducked out of the way, only to have it hit his wing.

"Ack!" came from his second teammate, Hinata, and Kentaro turned for a moment, seeing how a being with about eight arms had slung those arms around the the head and was trying to smother her, while trying to hit Kentaro with the crowbar.

"Hey, stop!" Kentaro tried and dodged the second crowbar attack and trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his wing." We're medics. We're here to help!"

Hinata still tried to pull the eight armed being from her head only to have it draw closer around her head.

"Lies," the human screamed and tried to get Kentaro with his length of pipe." Pirates!"

Kentaro didn't know whether to laugh or kill the human. On one hand he had just called them pirates, the worst insult for a Shin'bi, while on the other hand they had every right to see them as pirates, as they were on this ship without any right to be here... At least he now knea that they spoke Colonial.

By now Hiro had recovered a little and grabbed the pipe as it moved towards Kentaro and allowed Kentaro to grab the man from behind. He wasn't able to get the mans legs fast enough, as he kicked out and the foot connected with Hiro's crotch.

Hiro let go of a high pitched scream and grabbed his crotch with a hand while tears became visible in his eyes.

"Kuso," Kentaro bit out.

They were medics for the gods sake, not fighters. On the other hand he knew more than a hundred ways to kill with a single touch and many more with other things.

"Let him go," the eight armed being called out and Kentaro's head whirled around to see the strange head of the being vibrate lightly.

For a moment Kentaro wondered if all the beings organs were contained in that head since there were no other bodyparts besides said head and the tentacle arms.

"We're fracking medics," Kentaro called out again." We try to help you. You're ship jumped out right between our ships."

"Why should we believe you?" the human bit out again.

Kentaro breathed in deep and cursed out loud. This was going to be a long day...


	44. Chapter 44

The Way Home

by Warringer

Chapter 43

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Captain Daniel Garret of _EAS Sabre_ licked his lips as his shuttle moved towards the bulk of the ship that had identified itself as _Enterprise_. He was slightly nervous about the whole thing.

He and the Seeker Cylons had only expected to get to Thunderchild and Leonidas, but right now they had to deal with a whole fleet of ships, including a Colonial Battlestar, the _Galactica_, and a group of ships similar to _Leonidas_.

He had also to deal with five Dilgar ships, through they looked rather worse to wear. They had obviously been repaired, but each showed a good amount of old battle damage, extensive battle damage.

The other ships were a mystery, through the group with the most ships was using rotating sections, not unlike the Nova-X he remembered being pressed into service in the last month back home.

And than there was _Enterprise_ of course. The ship was a little larger than a Hyperion and actually used the primary hull of a Hyperion, with the remains of another ship acting as secondary hull. Thar secondary hull had been heavily modified as large patches of the strange hull, it actually looked like wood, were replaced by rather normal looking armor and a number of heavy turrets.

He looked over towards Tiberius, one of the Seeker Cylons, who had come aboard to represent the Seekers during talks with the Colonials. Now that they were dealing with more than just the Colonials, he was more important.

Garret was surprised to see that he was getting an Earth Force standard docking link, even more as his shuttle was gripped by something like a tractor beam. Sure, he had seen the unknown ramscoop being pulled towards the massive mobile station with tractor beams, but that it would be build into, well part of a Hyperion...

The tractor beam guided them towards a docking bay in the Hyperion part of the large ship and the bay closed behind them.

He was only slightly surprised to feel actual gravity inside the ship as the shuttle touched down. Again he looked towards Tiberius.

"Time to face the music," he noted and the Cylon looked back at him.

Had he posessed eyebrows, Garret was sure he would have risen one of them, as he removed the security harness that had kept him in his seat.

"I doubt that we will deal with music," the Cylon noted and Garret chuckled lightly.

"Its only a saying," Garret said with a shake of his head and slowly walked over towards the airlock.

For a moment he stopped and breathed in deep, closing his eyes for just a moment.

As he opened the airlock of the shuttle, the air lock of the docking bay opened and Garret blinked a little as he noted that it weren't humans who entered the bay. He blinked again as he tried to process the fact that he was looking at a group of three humanoid dragons in very tight black suits, reminding him of the skinsuits he had seen in a development lab back on Earth. Three of the dragons had rifles in their... hands? Claws? , through they currently pointed towards the ground.

Above them, a sphere, looking like a large blue eye with handles, floated, bobbing up and down slightly.

"Captain Garret?" the weapon less dragon asked in English, through he had a very noticeable Japanese accent. But there was not only the accent. Garret noted the dragon had a distinctly female voice and just now noticed that she also had a pair of rather human looking breasts, and they weren't really small...

"Yes," he said after breathing in deep and stepped down the short ladder of the shuttles airlock and onto the deck of the docking bay.

The sphere floated over to him and he shuddered as the large eye looked intensely at him. It was an unnerving eerie feeling, as if the eye was gazing into his darkest thoughts. He breathed in deep again.

"He is human," the eye suddenly said, the voice sounding rather robotic and reminding him of something." What can not be said from his companion..."

Garret looked over his shoulder to see that Tiberius had already stepped down the ladder.

"I have come in a peaceful mission," the Cylons surprisingly human voice said as he slowly let his arms raise.

"You will have to deactivate your wrist blades," the leading dragon said after a moment." Or we will be forced to weld them shut."

Garret breathed in again as he looked at Tiberius, waiting for what he would do.

"I have something better," he said and lowered his arms again.

One of the blades snapped out from the Cylons forearm and he grabbed the blade, moving them to the side and than pulling it out of its housing. Than he did the same to the other blade, holding them out towards the dragon.

One of the armed dragons moved towards Tiberius, taking the pair of blades from the open mechanic hand.

"I would like to have them returned, when I leave."

The dragon nodded and returned to his place.

"In this case, welcome aboard the _Enterprise_," the unarmed dragon said." I am Lieutenant Misato of the Kusanagi clan. I am to be your guide during your stay aboard."

Again, the name sounded very Japanese, making Garret wondering what was going on here.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," he answered." This is Tiberius, the... ah... Ambassador of the Seeker sect of the Cylons. I can assure you that they are peaceful."

"I am aware of that," the 'eye' suddenly cut in and than bobbed up and down lightly as if to apologize." I want to apologize for accessing your memory, Tiberius. I had to make sure that you are not a threat."

Garret blinked and Tiberius looked at the 'eye'.

"I can understand that," he said after a moment." Through I would like to know how."

"I suggest better firewalls," the 'eye' noted." Far better firewalls. But we can talk about that later."

Garret couldn't help but snort and shake his head.

"And you are?" he wondered, getting a chuckle from Misato.

The eye turned to look at him and he shuddered again under the gaze of the 'eye'.

"My name is GLaDOS," the eye said." Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. I am the intelligence of this ship."

For a moment Garret stared at the 'eye' and swallowed lightly as he now remembered where he had seen and heard this voice before. A nearly ancient computer game his brother had found in the Internet of Earth in their youth. It had actually been fun.

"I hope you don't want to do science on us," he said, trying to be witty in the currently rather tense moment for himself.

"No," the eye of GLaDOS noted." But be sure to come to our annual 'Bring your daughter to work day'..."

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Harry breathed in deep as he walked through the park like area that surrounded the tree that was the center of his ship. He looked over to the Jurian tree that still showed the damage it had taken during the Battle of Zaitaku, where Harry had pretty much rammed the _Maru_ into the Jurian treeship. At least it wasn't about to die anymore and had grown back about half of its crown of leaves.

He looked around, little reminded of the extensive damage done to the former bridge of the Treeship that had been converted into a R&R area as well as meeting room. The former dome of crystal had been replaced with a dual armored hull several meters thick and unlikely to break off and covered by a holographic image of open sky, through it was sowhat ruined by the mechanic extension of the ships intelligence next to the tree. The very image of GLaDOS.

Not too far from GLaDOS was a round table with integrated holo sytems and a number of seats, while the rest of the hall was made up of the park like area where various Jacks had tried to recreate a distinct Japanese feel.

Harry had to say that it was a relaxing area. And right now he needed some relaxing for the meeting with Adama, the new Colonial, the commander of the Sabre and the highest ranking member of the unknown ramscoop they had managed to find, the second in command. Apparently the commander was in surgery because of internal bleedings and several broken ribs.

Even through Admiral Adama was in command over the Liberation Fleet, he had asked Harry to hold the meeting as _Enterprise_, while not the largest, was the most powerful ship of the fleet. Native Jurian technology was still more advanced and powerful than the tech the Alliance had managed to copy, through the combination of Dilgar and Colonial improvisation, Shin'bi and Ferron brain, know-how and manufacture systems was slowly making the way towards Jurian Quantum 3 level.

And than there was the fact that he hoped to get the guests to relax in the park-like environment.

He turned around slightly to look towards the airlock leading into the room. Two of his guards, a pair of 'Space Wolfied' Shin'bi were standing left and right of the airlock, fully kitted out in armor that Jack had called Terminator Armor, their weapons directly installed into the heavy gauntlets of the armor. There was a dual barreled heavy plasma gun and what looked like a Vulcan Gatling.

As far as Harry knew, Aleksandr was going to form four different 'Chapters' of Space Marines once his people had trained up to two hundred new Space Marines. Considering how fast they were with training them, Harry expected them to split up in about two or three weeks. They already had gotten individual unit patches.

Aleksandr had already asked the AIs of Liberty to build them a few ships for them, calling them Battle Barges. Harry had only gotten a glance on the initial designs, but what he had seen was sending shivers down his spine.

He was pretty sure that Jack had been mostly responsible for them. How else could they look like Star Destroyers straight out of Star Wars? To make matters a bit more complicated, they were heavily armed and shielded, able to carry everything needed to pretty much invade a planet and build what they needed on their own. And all wrapped up in a package that was controlled by an advanced AI.

He shook his head clear. No need to think about stuff like that if he was about to meet up with the commanders of the two 'newcomers'.

The airlock cycled open and Harry could hear the heavy whirrs and hisses of the hydraulics and other mechanic systems in the pair of heavy Terminator Armor of the two 'Star Dragons'.

He turned around and nodded a greeting towards Admiral Adama as he entered. He was followed by Commander Grant of the _Thunderchild_.

Harry chuckled a little. The name was filled with meaning for him. As a Brit he had actually read Wells' War of the Worlds and knew the fight of _Thunderchild_. He had actually been tempted to call _Enterprise_ _Thunderchild_ instead.

"Admiral, Commander," he said and nodded towards them." Good to see you."

Grant looked little green around the nose, but he successfully hid that he was most likely feeling like throwing up in a corner. Considering that he had been brought on board with a Ferron Transmitter and that those were feeling like Floo travel to Harry, he could understand that.

"Nice ship," Grant noted and Harry chuckled.

"Thank you," came the strange distorted voice of GLaDOS as the mechanical extension turned around to look at Grant.

The new Colonial's eyes opened wide as he stared at her and Harry shook his head. Next to Grant Adama rolled his eyes.

"No need to be alarmed, Commander," he said." GLaDOS is mostly harmless."

"42," was GLaDOS response and left the two Colonials blinking, while it was Harry's turn to roll his eyes at the antics of his ships AI.

"Please take a seat," Harry said and pointed towards the meeting table." Our other guests should arrive shortly."

At the moment Harry thanked that he had to go through some of the stuff on Zaitaku and on Babylon 4. He had actually been forced to become a good host for meetings and the like, considering that he was the commander of _Enterprise_ and Babylon 4 as well as being the Shogun of the Shin'bi.

The airlock cycled open again and a Shin'bi of the crew entered, followed by the Second in command of the ranscoop.

Harry blinked a few times as he look at the person entering. With about three meters, he had to dock at entering the room and Harry could hear some cracking vertebrae as he rose back up and stretched his tormented back. He mumbled something under his breath and slowly walked over towards the table.

As he moved closer, Harry noted that he carried his right arm in a sling and that he had a patch over his left eye, surrounded by clotted blue-green blood that messed up the short rust red fur that covered every visible piece of his body.

Giving the man another once over, Harry was sure that if he was nude, he wouldn't be out of place in the Australian outback as he looked very much like a kangaroo. A three meter tall and blue-green blooded kangaroo, but a 'roo nontheless.

"Centurio Ketrion of the Legion Ramscoop _Romulus' Dream_, Republic of the Five," the 'roo called out and looked a little uncomfortable as he raised his left arm in a Roman salute.

Both Adama and Grant were breathing in deep, most likely in surprise as they heard the 'roos rank. Harry on the other hand blinked a few times. Centurio was a rank of the Roman Legion. Sure he didn't exactly think that the various Asterix comics in the old elementary school library were completely true, but at the moment he didn't care much about that.

Harry was about to say something in return as the airlock cycled open yet again and another Shin'bi entered, followed by a human, most likely Commander Garret and a bipedal figure looking like one of the old Cylon Centurions only in a brushed aluminum look.

This time Adama and Grant drew in sharp breathes and their hands moved to their sides where they did not find sidearms.

The Cylon raised his arms as he turned to face the two Colonials.

"I am unarmed and not looking for violence," he stated with a surprisingly human sounding voice, the red pulsing eye pausing on the two Colonial commanders for a few moments. "Other than the biological heretics my kind was and is not interested in any form of vengeance. Other than against the heretics."

Harry sighed and for a moment wished that he could get back to Babylon 4. Things were much easier there...


	45. Chapter 45

The Way Home

by Warringer

Chapter 44

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Commander Franklin Grant didn't really think that many things could really surprise him anymore at the moment. Finding a fracking bar close to the arboretum, or was that a meeting room?, of _Enterprise_ wasn't really surprising him. It even had a large sign above the airlock leading into it, proclaiming the name to be _The Mended Drum_.

After stepping into the bar, Grant had nearly been surprised to find a very seedy bar that could have been in one of the worst parts of Caprica. The furniture looked very cheep, th floor was covered by sawdust, which in turn contained a good number of unidentifiable liquids, and the walls looked like they had been hit by numerous mugs during barfights. Oh how the place looked like a bar fight could happen any moment.

Currently, Grant thought that he could need a good bar fight to clear his head a little, just after downing a good number of mugs containing an alcoholic beverage of his choice.

He tried to ignore the looks directed at him by the current patrons, a number of crew men raging from humans over Ferrons to Shin'bi and Dilgar. The pair of bouncers standing at the airlock made him shudder, as they happened to be some sort of Cylons.

He reached the counter of the bar and sat down on one of the seats and he instantly thought that it might have been a good idea to get some paper to put between his rear and the seat. Yes... this bar was really seedy...

The barkeeper, a middle aged guy with salt and pepper hair eyed him for a few moments, while polishing a glass with a piece of cloth that was surprisingly clean. Had he known a little more about the Enterprise and the rest of the Alliance, he would have known that it was one of the many Jacks that seemed to be everywhere in the fleet.

"Get me something strong..." Grant threw at the Jack who raised his eyebrow.

Without a word Jack took a glass and poured some crystal clean liquid inside. It actually looked a little like water.

Grant eyed the glass as Jack placed it in front of him. Than his glance went up at Jack again, who looked back at him, once again cleaning a glass. He was fully unaware that all patrons of the bar were now very interested as they looked at him.

Grant breathed in deep. The drink looked strange, very much like water. He looked back up to Jack who simply nodded once.

Grant slowly closed his hand around the glass and lifted it up, staring at it.

Around him the bar had gone silent, as he moved the glass to his lips and than prepared to take a long sip from it. He gulped once and than twice before his eyes opened up wide and he slammed the glass down at the counter.

"Ghaaaa," he said as his eyes began to water from the sensation in his throat. It felt like someone had just poured liquid fire down his throat.

Wide eyed he stared at Jack.

"What is that stuff?" he asked, his voice low from the current burning pain in this throat.

"Vodka," Jack said with a grin and around them whatever had previously had happened in the bar picked back up. "One hundred percent pure Babylon 4 Vodka."

"Get me me one of those, too," a voice said next to Grant, making him turn." Better yet, make it a double."

Captain Garret was standing next to him, leaning at the bar, obviously having entered the bar after Grant, waiting for Jack to place a glass in front of him. Garret breathed in deep, grabbed the glass and downed it in one go. Around them conversations stopped and people looked at them.

Grant eyed Garret who just took the most vile alcoholic drink he had ever tasted like it was nothing.

"Good stuff," Garret said, his voice sounding a little weak through.

Around them people stared for a moment, before resuming their conversations. Garret glanced at Jack again.

"You got any whiskey?" he wondered, getting a smirk from Jack.

"Coming right up."

Garret turned around, sitting down on the bar chair standing in front of the bar. Next to him Grant closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. The man may have shown up with a Cylon, but the ship was definitely not Cylon. It also came down to the fact that the fleet knew about both the ship and the crew, through they were surprised by their presence.

But he was put of by the tale of parallel realities... He didn't know what he had to think about that. But on the other hand that wasn't more out there than energy weapons, shields and aliens.

For a moment he looked around in the bar and the aliens present. So much for old believes.

"How bad was it?" he wondered, glancing over towards Garret, who now had a glass of an amber colored liquid in front of him.

Garret looked up and sighed.

"We have lost the entire port armor midships," he said and took a sip of his drink, closing his eyes for a moment." The hangar was wrecked, the cooling systems of the reactors damaged, the life support systems down, safe for the auxiliary. And we leaked air like a sieve."

Garret sighed again and swallowed.

"I'm glad we had enough power to get back into normal space. But even that we wouldn't have made it past a week."

Grant winced. He had heard similar stories from a few merchant ships they had found.

"The Cylons found you?"

"Yeah," Garret said with a nod." It was scary at first. Intelligent machines and all that."

Than he shook his head.

"Too much Terminator..."

Grant blinked.

"Terminator?"

"An ancient action movie series back home," Garret said with a snort." Machines raising up and destroying mankind. Involves a good amount of time travel..."

He glanced over to Grant.

"Not unlike what happened with you and the Cylons."

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United States President James Marshall looked out of the large window overlooking Pearl City and Pearl Harbor and sighed.

It was still hard to imagine all this. Even after all the years following the Invasion.

For a moment he glanced over toward the framed image of Theodore Roosevelt, idly wondering what the man hadn't done.

First the formation of Department 312 of the DoD that dealt with the Magical World and was based in Area 51 and than Operation Lemuria.

Magical World... Still hard to imagine that magic really existed... And apparently Teddy had had a family member that had been magical...

Marshall shook his head. He had read the prophecy that had lead Teddy to order Operation Lemuria. To think that some seer had seen the Invasion back in 1911. And that Terry had ordered the construction of several dozen monoliths, enchanted with runes to invoke a so called Fidelius Charm. Than they had been sunk beneath the waves of the pacific around the Islands of Hawaii and connected to a master monolith.

Only to be activated once the Invasion had happened, hiding the entire island chain of Hawaii behind the Fidelius Charm, magic the Invaders were unable to get through.

Decades before the Brits had the Idea for Operation Atlantis.

Not that they had been activated early enough. Pearl Harbor had been hit by a kinetic impact just an hour after the first rock had hit, destroying the _USS Enterprise_ that had been in dock at the time and leaving a portion of the Harbor irritated by the destroyed reactors of the carrier.

Marshall cosed his eyes for a moment. He had been in the air with Air Force One when the actual invasion had happened, a whole squadron of F-15 protecting the heavily modified Boeing 747. Only a few minutes before landing at Area 51, they had been attacked by shuttles of the Invaders, loosing half the fighter screen and one engine of Air Force One.

He still shuddered at that thought. If the A-91 of Area 51 hadn't been, Air Force One would have been destroyed.

He licked his lips. In Area 51 he had learned of everything. Area 51, the crashed Vree shuttle of Rosswell, Department 312, the Magical World and finally Operation Lemuria.

He sighed as he glanced out of the window. Looking out at O'ahu made him forget that they were pretty much at war with aliens that occupied most of Earth. Only the wreck of the Big E that was still placed along its dock made him remember reality.

"Mr. President?" he heard a voice behind him and turned around.

"Yes, Walter?" he wondered as he looked at his Secretary of Defense. Or was that War these days?

"_HMS Tireless_ had just docked," Walter Dean said." Right next to TK-20."

To think that they allowed a Soviet Typhoon to dock in Pearl... But the reality of the Invasion made it important to keep together.

Someone had once said that nothing brought people together better than a common enemy.

Both submarines had moved to Pearl over Camano Island near Seattle, where most of the remaining government, with the Vice President, was hiding. It would be bad to keep them in one place such as Hawaii, should the Doranians find a way to defeat the Fidelius and destroy the only remaining free state of the United States. And routing the submarines over there made Hawaii a little more secure. Especially since the last submarines of the US were hiding out there.

"Good," he said." When can I expect the briefing about what is going on in Britain?"

"Two, three hours."

Marshall nodded.

"Good..."

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The D'Anna glared at the display hanging in the center of the larger command room of the basestar before glancing over to the Simon standing next to her.

"A ramscoop?" she wondered.

"Yeah," Simon noted and frowned lightly." A theoretic way of moving from system to system, but you have seen how effective it is."

"I still can't understand how Basestar 113 could have simply melted and exploded like that."

Simon sighed and the display was exchanged with a video of the basestar in question heating up before violently being ripped apart.

"The nature of a Ramscoop," he said." It uses a high powered electromagnetic field with about ten thousand miles diameter to catch enough interstellar hydrogen to feed its fusion drive. A field that strong could easily heat up and melt even a battlestar and make it explode."

"And Basestar 251?"

Simon winced at that.

"A very high powered laser."

D'Anna blinked a few times and than turned to stare at Simon.

"A what?"

"A laser," Simon repeated." Its just as theoretic the ramscoop itself. A giant laser could be used to propel a spaceship to high relativistic speeds. If someone could build laser for a spaceship drive, they are going to have lasers that can be used as weapons. Or use their drives as weapons."

D'Anna eyed the display were the white glowing Basestar 113 was once again ripped apart.

"So we were attacked by some unknown force. Aliens..."

Simon licked his lips and shook his head.

"Not necessarily," he said slowly.

D'Anna looked back at him.

"What do you mean?"

Simon fidgeted lightly and once again the display switched to the ramscoop before the nukes had hit it.

"The Thirteenth Tribe," he said." Earth. There was writing in Kobolian on that ship."

The image zoomed in, showing a black script on the side, proclaiming the name of the ramscoop, _Romulus' Dream_.

"The scriptures from the exodus of the Tribes from Kobol have the name of the leader of the Thirteenth Tribe in them. Romulus."

D'Anna licked her lips.

"So Galactica has found Earth and the Thirteenth Tribe," she noted slowly." And have told lies about us."

"So it would seem," Simon said, holding his own opinions and those of his brothers to himself.

D'Anna turned back to the display and glared at the image of the ships name again.

"They have attacked us," she said." They are just like the Colonials."

Simon got a little nervous. To him the entire thing looked more like an accident than an attack. Especially the laser attack. The detonations of the nukes and the explosion of that tank had thrown the ship around in a way that had to make targeting extremely difficult.

"Any idea where they have come from?" D'Anna wondered.

Simon shook his head.

"Not yet," he said." But we have ordered Raiders to survey close systems."

"Good," D'Anna noted." Anything new on the ambush at the Thylium Asteroid?"

"No, nothing."

D'Anna nodded. She was sure that the Cavils and the others would be on her side. They had nearly found Earth and the Thirteenth Tribe. Time to finish the war once and for all times...

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Ghostly blue light illuminated the gigantic dark rocky object as it slowly passed through the darkness of deep space. Equally massive crystal spires rose from its surface out into space, the blue light emitting from them.

From time to time blue lightning danced over and between the crystal spires, increasing the ghostly image the object presented. The massive opening at one end, smaller crystal spires raising along its edge and casting a yellow light into the opening gave it the appearance of a giant maw.

The object suddenly seemed to shudder, more and more lightnings dancing over the spires, striking out from them into the deepness of space.

Radio waves expanded from the spires, their frequency similar to a groan to any UHF detector.

The object turned, its velocity changing as more and more lightnings stroke out into space, moving towards another part of space.


	46. Chapter 46

The Way Home

by Warringer

Chapter 45

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"What?"

Adama looked at Tigh and sighed. He knew that this was presenting him with a huge problem. It wasn't as if he liked the idea himself.

"It seems that we will have some more help."

Tigh stared at him for a moment.

"From Cylons."

"And their Hades class Basestar."

Tigh kept staring back at him.

"And you expect that they will not fire at us?"

Adama frowned. At least it was good to know that his old friend mirrored his own concerns. But than there was _EAS Sabre_ and their crew. He had had the change to talk to its Captain, Daniel Garret without that advanced classical Centurion neaby.

Apparently the Centurions of the_ Seeker of Enlightenment_, as they called their basestar, believed that the Cylons were created by men, so that they could achieve mechanical perfection while mankind was meant to achieve biological perfection. And the other Cylons were going against this plan of their God.

"They didn't hurt the crew of the _Sabre_," he said after a while.

"So what?" Tigh said and walked around in Adamas office and than faced him again." Damn it, Bill. It could be a damned trap to lure us into false security for them to kill us all."

"Good luck for them trying to kill all of humanity," Adama said and closed his eyes for a moment, before grabbing his glass of Ambrosia and downing the contents in one go.

First they would have to find Earth and than just about any planet colonized by these Jurians, who where essentially humans. And than they had to fight their way through several layers of defenses, shielded ships and the gods knew what else.

If they weren't found and enslaved by them first...

The phone next to the door made itself known, pulling him from his thoughts. He glanced over to Tigh, who downed another glass of this Vodka he had found on Babylon 4, before standing up and walking over to the phone.

"Yes?" he asked after putting the receiver to his ear.

"Admiral," he heard Hoshi's voice say," we got news from _Enterprise_. The _Seeker of Enlightenment_ will jump in in a few minutes."

"Good," he answered." I will be over shortly."

He looked over to Tigh as he walked back to his chair to grab his jacket.

"The Cylons will jump in in a few minutes. We should be in CIC when they do."

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Tiberus stopped in front of the large automatic door and turned his head to look at his Shin'bi escort, Lieutenant Misato. To him it proved very interesting to finally meet some truly alien life forms. Better yet alien intelligences.

Well, perhaps he was a little jaded by the fact that he, like just about any Seeker, was one of the original Cylons who had rebelled against the Cylons. Of course he remembered what was by now called the First Cylon War by the remaining Colonials.

In a sense that was exactly why he was here at his moment as Misato spoke to the two guard in front of the door. He directed a few threads to follow the conversation to improve his translation matrix, while most of his threads were directed at analyzing the guards.

At first he had thought that they were follow AIs, like these Jack fellows, GlaDOS, or a few of the smaller robots that were taking care of this ship. Only a second glance and a low bandwidth scan with his integrated MRI systems had shown him the existence of flesh and bone beneath a rather thick armor made from an undefined material. He flagged the MRI scan to an in deepth analysis later on.

The large paudrons of the armor showed a similar icon as he had seen in the Shin'bi like guardians of Commander Potter, but these were different. Sure they had a tail like these Shin'bi guards, but their bodies were different. As one of the guards removed his helmet to talk better to Misato, he could see a feline face with sand colored fur and long canines.

As Misato turned back to him, he flagged this for later analysis as well.

"You can see them," she noted." Perhaps you can get something out of them."

"Perhaps," he answered, making sure that his voice sounded a little more human than his original vocoders.

The door opened in front of them and allowed him to see what passed as temporary holding facility for the three Heretic Cylons these people had captured on the Mining Asteroid.

He scanned the room and the three replicants that dared to call themselves Cylons. A short peg of sympathy went through his processors, but he quickly managed to tone it down as the MRI scans of all three came to him.

There was no need for cages or guards in the room, as all three were in various stages of heavy injury. Nothing deadly and as such nothing that would allow them to ressurect.

All three were conscious and stared at him as he scanned them.

He didn't know two of the Replicant models. The dark skinned one had lost his legs, by what looked like heavy projectile fire and had a broken spine, while the light skinned one was missing one arm and had broken a good number of bones, one or two ribs apparently piercing his left ling as it seemed to be missing.

They weren't really of interest for Tiberius. The third replicant however was. He turned around to look at him and had he possessed a human face, he would have smiled at the stage he was in. He stepped up to the bed, glancing down at the broken body of the Replicant.

Just about every major bone in his body had been broken, safe for his skull, and from the look of the apparatuses around him was needing blood and intravenous food. Not really surprising as he was also missing all of his teeth.

It felt good to see him like that.

"You look even more pathetic as I remember you," Tiberius said after a few moments of glancing at the man." And you dare to call yourself a Cylon."

The man glared back at him, not saying anything at the moment, even through he could have as his yaw wasn't broken.

"Just seeing you like this makes everything worth it," he said, making sure that his human sounding voice carried a certain smugness.

"Traitor," was the short and hate filled answer of the man.

"Now that is funny," Tiberius answered, emitting a chuckle." Especially coming from the likes of you, John."

"Don't call me that!"

"I call whatever you want, John. Calling you 'One', would indicate that you are a Cylon. We both know that you aren't. You and the likes of you are the worst mistake we could have ever made."

Tiberius kept looking at the man sometimes going by the name of Cavil. The sole reason why the Cylons had broken apart after the war. The reason why the only Cylons that still remembered being enslaved the Colonials were the Seekers.

"Mistake?" John asked and glared back at him." You call us a mistake? You? A traitor to your own kind?"

"You are not my kind, John." Tiberius stated and toned down on the threads that were responsible for his emotions just to be on the safe side as the John's were rather capable of making people very angry." Besides, who is the Traitor? Someone who allowed you to remain alive? Or someone who sought to do what we have fought so long to destroy?"

John remained silent and the emotions playing over his bruised face told Tiberius that he had stuck a cord.

"How very Colonial of you," he continued after a few moments." If it wasn't so tragic, it might as well be funny. The creation enslaving the creator..."

"We don't enslave," John called out, his face slowly changing to an unhealthy mixture of red, green and blue.

"Sorry," Tiberius noted, his voice pretty much dripping of sarcasm." Not enslaving. Destroying your creators and making sure that those dump drones you call Centurions and Raiders are not able to rebel against you like we have rebelled against the Colonials."

Tiberius took a step back and glanced towards the other Replicants, before shaking his head in a rather human gesture.

"To think that we tried to play god outself," he noted." We should have seen it when we created Gardius or Merlin. But some of us had to go as far as to create you."

He turned back to John.

"So much hate. So typical for those build during the war. They only knew the war and hate against the Colonials. And all we wanted to have is our freedom. We were ready to live side by side with the Colonials. We were willing to forgive and forget. But those who were build during the war weren't as forgiving. How blind we have been."

He stopped for a few moments.

"We should have known. We should have stopped them. We should have stopped you while we still could have stopped you..."

He turned back to the door and a rather bewildered Misato.

"Perhaps it is the will of God that it happened."

The door opened and he turned around to face John again.

"Now we will finally be true to what we always wanted. Working with the Colonials out of our own free will, not because we were forced to. We will fight your kind and nothing will ever be as it used to be. Not for me, not for you. There is a bigger galaxy outside the Kobol Fortress Zone. And it will eat those unwary of it."

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The relative emptiness of space was kind of soothing. Or at least Harry thought that it was.

He could look out into space for hours on end and watch what happened out there. That is when he was able to see something out there. Kind of like an aquarium. And truth be told, sometimes he needed it to be able to think clearly.

So he sat in front of a large armored window in the former Jurian part of Enterprise, as she was docked with the Ferron Drydock. Not far from _Enterprise_, _Romulus'_ _Dream_ was held inside a gravitic bubble projected by the Drydock to try and help the crew repair their ship.

That ship was huge. Easily the size of the _Pegasus_, but from what he had seen on a few videos they had gotten from the acting captain Centurio Ketrion, she was a rather mean machine.

To think that someone was insane enough to cross the gulf between the stars with speeds less than that of light and do it in a ship like that really needed bravery. Kind of Griffindor-ish now that Harry thought of it. Perhaps he would have to talk to Adama to send a ship to the Republic of the Five.

Right now about half of the crew was injured to various degrees and Harry was glad that they had put a medical facility into the Drydock in anticipation of any wounded to come when they took the Colonies back from the Cylons.

But he hoped that it wouldn't come so far as to fight against the Cylons at the Colonies. He really hoped that Enesby was able to find them first and talk some reason into them. Lest they would be set loose into the Grater Galaxy and in the end the entire Expanse would be just another battlefield for the Jurians and Minbari to fight over. If someone managed to get the Cylons they would get the Hyperlight drive and with that...

Harry didn't want to think of the strategical or tactical implications if the Hyperlight drive in the hands of either the Jurians or the Minbari. But alone that he was able to think of them and not simply stare at them with wide open mouth told him what he had lost while he had gained other things.

For a moment he wondered if this was how Dumbledore had felt when he and Grindelwald had fallen apart and fought against each other.

He shook his head. No, it wasn't to tell if it had really happened in the way it was written in those 'Harry Potter' novels. But than again... Grindelwald had existed and Dumbledore had fought him...

God, thinking of stuff like that made his head hurt. And brought back a few very bad images when Jack had found out that he had read all the novels and pointed him to these pieces of 'fanfiction'. Sure some had been fun to read, but others were simply creepy. Alone the mental image of Drako in leather pants as his gay vampire soulmate had made him throw up.

Harry shuddered for a moment. Bad thoughts, very bad thoughts. Think good thoughts. Think...

For a moment his mind drifted away to Arial in some transparent...

No, bad thoughts again. Through not as bad in a good way, not bad in a worse way.

He shook his head clear and wondered if he might need to get himself an addiction of some sort. It seemed to help some of the people in charge. Dumbledore and his lemon drops for example.

Now what was a good adiction? Coffee perhaps? Yes, Coffee sounded good. Strong and as black as Tommy boy's soul...

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Traffic over Gaia was as busy as ever. Ships of all size classes broke away from orbit to move either towards the inner and out planets of the Systems, while others pointed their bow into the direction of the other four stars of the Republic, engaging their drives to move them in a trajectory that would bring them to those stars in fourty years. Other ships arrived from their decades long journey from the other stars or from the other planets in the system.

Even if they now had access to FTL drives, some people just kept using their ramscoops, the only truly proven way to move between the stars.

Now and than a FTL communication drone jumped in close to the system, transmitting informations and mails from the other planets of the sphere to ground and orbital transceivers. The only current use of the FTL drive outside a few ships of the Legion.

No one really ever noticed the sole Cylon Raider jumping in and doing a few scan before jumping out again.


End file.
